Table of contents for January 2026 in APC

As we sit back and contemplate the year passed, and the new year to come, there’s no doubt that the honeymoon period for PC enthusiasts may well be over. AI datacentres aren’t going away, instead they are bursting forth across the globe, consuming land, water, power and components. The big news right now is of course Micron (Crucial) pulling out of the consumer market completely. That’s no small thing – it is potentially cataclysmic for anyone that buys or sells PCs. And while we’re feeling it here in our PC corner of the world with memory and SSDs. They’re both now expensive now, and rare. It won’t be long before any product with memory onboard will see its price go up. Fabs around the world are chasing the money, and…

PRICE From $5,999 WEB apple.com/au Almost two years after the original Apple Vision Pro launched, it’s just received its first official update – a new model powered by Apple’s cutting-edge M5 processor. Aside from the new silicon, though, I’m honestly shocked by how little the new Vision Pro M5 brings to the table. Yes, it has improved performance and visuals, plus better battery life. Apple has also partly addressed previous complaints about comfort by including a new Dual Knit Band. That’s it for updates, however. The physical design is all but identical to the original model: unless you examine the head strap very carefully you won’t spot any difference at all, and you still need to schlep around a battery pack. And while visionOS has matured a bit since the…

PRICE $1,540 WEB samsung.com Samsung did a lot right with the 990 Pro, which was itself a fitting successor to the popular 980 Pro, by producing a fast, efficient, and consistent drive. Only one thing was missing: a high-capacity 8TB SKU designed not only to answer the WD Black SN850X, against which it’s priced the same, but to take back the initiative while using the newest flagship hardware. Its high-quality flash has great random read latency, something everyone desires, and the company knows how to produce a drive that, at the very least, holds its own in every other metric. The 9100 Pro isn’t the fastest drive, but it is more efficient than any of the high-end SSDs that came before it. Here, we’re reviewing the heatsink version of the…

We think you can break the internet era into three rough phases. First, for a few years in the mid-to-late 1990s, it seemed that most online content would always be free. That utopian vision didn’t last long as media companies and the early tech giants quickly realised how much money could be made. Thus began the second period, where companies often launched paid-for services, only to later make them free to attract more customers as they developed other money-making schemes. This lasted many years and gave us loads of superb free software and services, but it started to fade around 2018-19, led by TV-streaming firms chasing profits. Then came the Covid lockdowns and increased public reliance on digital services. As inflation soared, companies started to squeeze customers for every cent…

PRICE $1,349 from apple.com/au The iPad Pro is clearly the iPad for power users to aspire to, but what if you don’t have a compelling need for that performance – or the megabucks budget to afford it? This is where the iPad Air comes into its own, giving you a business-class iPad at a higher cost than the economy model, but with an older processor and less advanced Liquid Retina screen than the first-class iPad Pro. Sure, you’re not getting Apple’s best tech, but who cares when you’re spending between $300 and $850 less than you would for the equivalent iPad Pro? The 13.6in version we tested certainly doesn’t look or feel like a lesser tablet. It’s noticeably bigger than most thanks to its whopping 4:3 aspect ratio screen, but…

PRICE $399 from oneplusmobile.com.au Having delivered excellent mid-range tablets in the One Plus Pad and its two sequels, OnePlus has now entered the budget tablet battle with the Pad Lite. Compared to the OnePlus Pad 3, much has been cut down to reach the sub-$400 price point, but OnePlus has made some smart decisions on where to drop the spec without wrecking usability or performance, to the extent that this is still a fine device for everyday use. For a start, the physical design isn’t a million miles away from the more premium model, with an all-aluminium construction in a two-tone blue metallic finish. While it’s comparatively heavy for an 11in tablet at 530g, it feels robust and resilient in the hand. It’s IP42-rated for dust and water resistance, which…

PRICE $599 from lenovo.com/au The Idea Tab Plus sits in the middle of Lenovo’s current Idea Tab range, giving you an affordable 12.1in tablet with a solid spec and bundled stylus. Lenovo is pitching it at students, though it could also work as a budget business slate – especially if you purchase the folio keyboard for $199. The Idea Tab Plus is a well-designed unit in a choice of pink (possibly less suited to business use) or grey metallic aluminium shells. The curved edges and corners and surprisingly light 530g weight make it easy to hold for long periods, and it’s only just over 6mm thick. Connectivity is disappointing, with a USB 2 Type-C port for charging and data transfer plus Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 5, but at least you…

Find the best deals on new gear at getprice.com/au Premium laptops Apple MacBook Pro M5 A class act. No radical updates to the design this year, but this M5 update – initially just to the 14in version as we await Pro and Max variants for the MacBook Pro 16in – delivers yet more power to accompany the already excellent battery life. If you can pay the price, Apple’s professional laptop stands apart. PRICE From $2,499 WEB apple.com/au THE ALTERNATIVES ASUS ZENBOOK A14 This affordable and super-slim laptop with a 14in OLED panel has all the performance most people need at a very competitive price, and it boasts fantastic build quality. $1,999, asus.com APPLE MACBOOK AIR M4 If you don’t need the all-out power of the Pro, this is a brilliant,…

VIVALDI Customise the Tab Bar Vivaldi 7.6, released in mid- September, introduces the new Tab Button and a fully customisable Tab Bar. This lets you tailor the browser’s top toolbar to include all the buttons you need. Right-click any button on the Tab Bar (but an actual tab) and choose Customize Toolbar. Drag buttons from the Toolbar Editor to Vivaldi’s Tab Bar to add them to it – options include Closed Tabs, Synced Tabs and Separator. Rearrange the Tab Bar buttons by dragging them into position, then click Done. You can restore its default (four-button) appearance by clicking ‘Reset Tab Bar to Default’ (see screenshot below). The Toolbar Editor can also customise Vivaldi’s other toolbars, including the address bar and side panel. EDGE Hide the new Ask Copilot button Edge’s…

LIBREOFFICE CALC Choose how to open imported CSV files LibreOffice 25.8, released in August, lets you choose how Calc opens CSV files when you import them. Previously, every time you opened a file Calc would show the Text Import box, asking whether you wanted to set separators (like commas and semicolons) and columns. Now, you can tick the ‘Always show on import’ box (see screenshot below) to always see the options for setting separators and columns. If you leave it unticked, Calc will remember your previous choices. MICROSOFT EXCEL Show cells containing zeroes as blanks By default, Excel shows zeroes in cells when you choose 0 as a value, but you can choose instead to show these cells as blank. Click ‘File’ at the top left followed by Options at…

WHAT IS IT?A medieval survival city builder from the creators of Grim Dawn EXPECT TO PAY$50.95 DEVELOPERCrate Entertainment PUBLISHERCrate Entertainment REVIEWED ONIntel Core i7-9700K, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti STEAM DECKPlayable WEB farthestfrontier.com Priorities. That’s what managing a medieval city is all about. Farms are important for long-term survival, but fishing and gathering makes more sense if people need food quickly. Chopping logs into planks means construction on new buildings can commence, but if people are freezing in their homes, that timber should be turned into firewood instead. And assigning labourers to salvage nearby ruins for resources should be put on hold if – and here’s just one quick example – a giant angry bear is rampaging through the town brutally mauling everybody to death. Yeah, a murder-bear…

PRICE Free PLATFORM PC, Mac, Linux WEB tinyurl.com/APC554hopes This is a visual novel about the soul-destroying act of trying to pay people to live in their empty house: the lengths you’ll go to in order to secure the property, and the compromises you might be willing to make. Each day begins in the same way: by firing out applications for rental properties. You do this by furiously clicking on the logos for rental websites, as a frankly dispiriting tally accumulates and the obsequious contents of your letters are splashed on-screen. The day then progresses to a house viewing, which you attend with your partner, and explore and chat in a visual novel manner. But, it’s not long before the process takes a turn for the absurd. The writing is wonderful,…

ASCOMP CLEANING SUITE SYSTEM CLEANING AND TUNING FOR WINDOWS. If your Windows PC is getting slower and unnecessary data is accumulating, it’s time for a thorough system cleaning. With Cleaning Suite, you have a powerful cleaner at your disposal that efficiently cleans and optimises your system. Whether it’s clearing temporary files, deleting browser caches, or optimising system startup. The Cleaning Suite thoroughly analyses your system to ensure that unnecessary files and data clutter that take up valuable disk space are reliably removed. With system cleaning from Cleaning Suite, your Windows PC will not only run faster but also more stable and efficiently. Our cleaner removes temporary files, optimises the Windows registry, and ensures that you can once again use your PC at full speed. ASHAMPOO BACKUP PRO 25 BACKUP, RESCUE,…

With so many facets to the AI-induced memory shortage affecting the PC and tech industries for at least the next year, if not longer, let’s take a look at what’s caused the problem, what the memory makers are doing about it, and how it will affect memory, SSDs, GPUs and PCs going forward. HOW OPENAI BLINDSIDED EVERYONE It has come to light that OpenAI held talks with both Samsung and SK Hynix, two of the three manufacturers that supply nearly all of the world’s DRAM (Micron being the third), allegedly negotiating with each without the others’ knowledge. Given that there are only three players, they are usually cautious in their contract negotiations to avoid overextending themselves. This is because the DRAM market is highly volatile, making it very risky to…

PRICE $349 (12GB + 256GB) WEB amazon.com.au The latest version of the Amazon Echo Show 8 is the best display-enabled Alexa device we’ve seen. It comes with a fresh design, a larger screen, better speakers than ever and more powerful internals for smoother performance. Although more expensive than the previous model, it’s one of the most significant Alexa upgrades in years – and as we discuss opposite, it also introduces Alexa+, Amazon’s new AI-powered voice assistant. THE UPS “Amazon’s AZ3 Pro processor keeps everything responsive, whether you’re using voice control or tapping on the touchscreen, and the Show now features the same front-facing stereo speakers as the new Echo Studio.” The screen itself is more striking than ever. The IPS panel has grown from 8in to 8.7in, while the bezels around it have…

PRICE $1,499 (12GB + 256GB) WEB oneplusmobile.com.au OnePlus’ latest phone is a big step forward, in more ways than one. Since the number 14 is considered unlucky in China the manufacturer has skipped over it, moving directly from last year’s OnePlus 13 to this new top-tier handset. At the same time, the new phone comes with multiple new features that make it genuinely feel like more than a single generation’s worth of progress. The price is competitive for a big-screen phone. While the Pixel 10 Pro XL starts at $1,999 and iPhone 17 Pro Max at $2,199, the OnePlus 15 starts at just $1,499. That gets you the Infinite Black finish with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but I do think it’s worth moving up to the 16GB version;…

PRICE $299 WEB edifier.com.au I was intrigued to test these, being the first earbuds that use planar drivers I’ve used, and I’m a total planar believer when it comes to audiophile-grade over-ear cans. But in-ear? Planar drivers famously deliver outstanding clarity and precision, but often at the expense of deep bass. So I was pleasantly astonished to discover that the Edifier NeoBuds Planar filled my ears with a luscious soundscape that included all the bass I wanted, as tested across a very demanding set of bass-heavy tracks. Planar’s clarity means the bass itself can be sharply defined (if that’s what the artist intended), but these Edifier’s also let the bass be fat and muddy if that’s how it should be, and the deep notes sit within the overall soundscape as…

PRICE $1,699 from apple.com/au The original Pro tablet hasn’t lost any of its computing ambition. Where other tablets talk the laptop-class performance talk, it walks the walk, somehow cramming in the same M5 architecture powering the latest MacBook Pro laptops into a device only 5.1 to 5.3mm thick (depending on whether or not you choose the 5G version). Frankly, it’s wasted on the usual browsing and media consumption stuff that many people use their tablets for. The iPad Pro is built for serious creative or productivity work on the go. Take a look at our benchmark results, which start on p76. It dominates the tables across every test, streets ahead of its nearest competition, which in most is Apple’s own 13in iPad Air. Even in 3DMark, where the Samsung Galaxy…

PRICE $2,099 from samsung.com/au The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is the tablet that will make you ponder how big is too big. The massive 14.6in OLED screen is unbeatable when resting on your lap, tray table or sofa arm while you’re streaming video, and brings obvious advantages when multitasking or running more complex creative or productivity apps. Yet the sheer size and wide 16:10 aspect ratio makes it more than a handful when you’re using the tablet on the move. Samsung has tried to minimise the bulk with slim bezels and a beautifully engineered Armor Aluminium shell that’s an impossible 5.2mm thick. Yet the 690g weight leaves it feeling unwieldy, especially in landscape mode. The AMOLED screen is gorgeous, with the kind of contrast, clarity and colour that puts…

PRICE $1,399 from samsung.com/au The smaller of Samsung’s high-end tablets packs plenty of appeal despite its reduced screen size of 11in. That means it loses 1.4 inches of screen compared to last year’s Galaxy Tab S10+, but drops the thickness to 5.5mm and the weight to 482g. Yet this slender tablet still packs in a powerful MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ processor and 12GB of RAM, giving it some serious computing capabilities, including a powerful 50 TOPS NPU for AI support. Nothing much else has changed in terms of the Galaxy Tab’s basic design, with the grey or silver Armor Aluminium shell balancing portability with comfort and sturdy resilience. The screen has a slightly lower 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, but the smaller size means an increase in pixel density to 274ppi. Crucially,…

We run each tablet through a fearsome battery of benchmarks, starting with Geekbench 6 to test CPU performance. The single-core tests put each platform’s most powerful core through its paces, while the multicore tests check performance across all cores. We also run Geekbench’s Compute benchmark to get a measure of the onboard GPU in computational tasks. Synthetic benchmarks don’t cover everything, however, which is why we also run a selection of browser-based benchmarks. Basemark Web 3 and WebXPRT 4 run through a range of productivity, maths and graphics tasks, stretching the CPU and GPU. And JetStream 2 gives a good indication of how tablets will cope with complex JavaScript code. We also use 3DMark to put the GPU through its paces and establish an idea of baseline games performance. This…

PRICE $1,950 WEB tinyurl.com/APC554ddc D&D COMPUTERS - INTEL I7 14700F RTX 5060 DDR5 GAMING For getting your foot in the gaming door, this system offers Nvidia’s latest generation graphics tech matched with a multithreading beast of a CPU, so productivity of a wide variety will also be pleasant on this system. The memory is on the slow side, at just the base JDEC speed of 4800MT/s, so do expect sub-par performance from the CPU side of things under load. Otherwise, storage and RAM capacities are reasonable for the price. Just be sure to check what PSU and especially CPU cooler come with the system if you want to buy this, as 14th gen parts run hot and need a good cooler. SPECS CPU Intel Core i7 14700F; Cooler Unspecified; Motherboard…

What is it? It’s the process of installing apps from independent sources, outside of your device’s official app store. If you use an iPhone or iPad you may not be familiar with this concept, because it’s something Apple flatly refuses to allow. And it’s one of the reasons many users prefer Android, which has always taken a much more open approach, allowing users to freely install any app they want. Until now. What’s changing? Google will soon require anyone who develops Android apps to verify their identity with Google, even if they make their apps available outside of the Play Store. When the new system is introduced, your Android device will check to see whether the developer of an app you attempt to sideload on to your device is verified.…

GEMINI Colourise your old photos One of the most useful features introduced by Gemini’s new Flash 2.5 Image model (aka Nano Banana) is the ability to colourise old black-and-white photos. This is available to all Gemini users and images can be up to 100MB in size – the free plan lets you edit 100 per day. Upload a black-and-white picture to the Gemini website or mobile app and ask it to ‘Colourise this photo’ (see screenshot below). It will transform the image in a few seconds, and you can then download or share the colourised result. Unlike most free online converters, Gemini lets you save photos at their original size. It add its watermark symbol to the bottom-right corner, but this isn’t too obtrusive. GROK Explain sections of PDFs Grok…

PRICE Free PLATFORM PC WEB helllst4r.itch.io You could hardly pick a more peaceful setting for a horror game: a cosy house full of light and plants, and a sun-dappled garden, where birds have made their nests in many of the birdhouses scattered around. Birdhouse’s world is idyllic, even as uneasiness begins to infiltrate it. With your mother ill in bed, it’s up to you to take care of the household chores, which include watering said plants and feeding said birds in the garden. The suitably overbearing soundtrack establishes the peaceful yet unquiet mood, while the detailed artwork brings the characters, and the eventual horror elements, vividly to life. Wisely, and impressively, the big reveals are expressed through well-drawn close-ups and creepy animation sequences. Mood and pacing are two of the…

PRICE Free PLATFORM PC WEB bruneiros.itch.io Pool Friday’s world is a patchwork quilt of mixed media images, where pixel art rubs shoulders with claymation figures, and clipped-out photos float in the background, in place of clouds. It shouldn’t work, perhaps, but the quality of the varied images ties the whole aesthetic together. Most are just background characters, NPCs you can’t even chat to, but you could spend the length of the game again just fully exploring each environment, to better appreciate the odd sights and even odder inhabitants. The central characters are even stranger and more detailed than the NPCs, and literally dominate many scenes as enormous background figures, looming over the protagonist, or engaging in sex acts as you traipse around. The central figure is Roman Dahl, who has…

“Take two bottles into the shower? Not me,” scoffed the woman in the old Vidal Sassoon advert. She just wanted to wash her hair and go, without spending time on shampoo and conditioner. Similarly, I seldom use Tor Browser and a VPN to access the web privately. Because they both encrypt your data and hide your IP address, combining them seems like overkill. It also slows your internet connection by routing it through two different networks. Even Tor says: “Generally speaking, we don’t recommend using a VPN with Tor unless you’re an advanced user” (tinyurl.com/APC554tor). However, that hasn’t stopped the Tor Project creating its own VPN. Could this be its version of ‘Wash & Go’, offering the best of both privacy methods in one ‘bottle’ without sacrificing speed? I decided…

AI DATA-CENTRE BUILDOUT COPPER SHORTAGES Record demand is colliding with slower mine output. Copper producers and market analysts are starting to outline a supply gap that arrives just as hyperscale AI campuses ramp toward record power draws. The International Energy Agency’s latest critical minerals outlook places copper on a path where existing and planned mines meet only about 70% of projected 2035 demand. Wood Mackenzie expects shortages to appear far earlier, with a 304,000-tonne refined-copper deficit forecast for 2025 and a wider gap in 2026. That trajectory converges with a wave of AI-driven electrical infrastructure, turning a longstanding industrial metal into a practical bottleneck for data-centre expansion. According to Wood Mackenzie, the “hyperscalers” building data centers are “outbidding grid suppliers”, piling significant pressure on producers. A SHOT IN THE ARM…

PRICE US$1,799 WEB samsung.com You might imagine the weight would be the least interesting difference, but it makes a big impact. At 545g the Samsung Galaxy XR is at least 200g lighter than Apple’s headset, and even when I’ve been testing the Galaxy XR for hours on end, I’ve never found it tiring to wear, which is a major win. The build quality does seem a bit cheaper than the Vision Pro, with its plastic arms and battery unit. The light shields for blocking out external light feel a bit flimsy too, though they work well once in place. Even so, I’m struck by how much more comfortable it is than the Apple Vision Pro. DISPLAYS AND INTERFACE The Galaxy XR uses a pair of 4K micro-OLED displays with a…

PRICE $999 WEB www.sennheiser.com If you get the feeling you’ve already seen these Sennheisser cans, well you kind of have – at least on the outside – because they’re built using the same chassis as the Momentum 4. The HDB 630 inherit the same premium materials and comfort; they’re secure yet not too tight and the robust 311g somehow floats on the dome. However it’s a different story on the inside with the HDB 630 boasting in-house 42 mm transducers “tuned for purity and speed”. The HDB 630 bundles in a BTD 700 USB-C dongle which expands the traditionally varying, limited, incompatible, and ‘lossy’ range of audio codecs available on different devices, to suddenly have a true aptX Adaptive handshake between it and the HDB 630. You’ll need the Smart…

Now we’ve survived the biggest software event of 2025 – Microsoft ending support for Windows 10 – it’s time to start looking to the future. And whether you’ve upgraded to Windows 11 or stayed with its predecessor, your PC can always benefit from some useful new software. In our Best Free Software section (see page 36), we regularly recommend popular and reliable programs, such as PowerToys, Files, Glow, IrfanView and Thunderbird. These are frequently updated to give us new options to explore and explain, and we wouldn’t get by without them. But with a new year upon us, we’ve decided to put those old favourites aside (for now) and focus on some exciting new software. In this feature, we recommend 10 brilliant programs for 2026 that have only appeared –…

The world’s best-known spreadsheet application turned 40 while we were writing this feature, having been first released in September 1985. Back then, however, it was a Mac-only product, competing against the likes of Lotus 1-2-3 and VisiCalc. Two years later, with Bob Hawke the new Prime Minister and ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ riding high in the charts, the first PC release came along, badged as version 2 to align it with the then-current Mac edition. Today, Excel’s old rivals are long forgotten. Much like Rick Astley’s smash hit, Microsoft’s spreadsheet has weathered the ages and even enjoyed a renaissance, despite competition from web-first rivals such as Google Sheets and Zoho Office. As with Word last month (see issue 553, p54), one of the biggest changes has been to the…

PRICE $599 from apple.com/au Apple’s iPad remains near-synonymous with the whole tablet concept, and the go-to option for many buyers if they’re not splashing out on a higher-end device. The 2025 version won’t do anything to change that. You might quibble about its chunky bezels or its unimaginative design, but it’s still the mainstream tablet to beat. This 11th generation iPad comes in a choice of four colours – silver, yellow, coral pink and blue – with the 11in toughened glass screen tucked tightly into a simple aluminium shell. It’s not as compact as some Android 11in models such as the Lenovo Yoga Pad, but the unusual 10:7 aspect ratio is a good fit for creative apps, browsing and media consumption, and it’s light and portable at just 477g for…

PRICE $699 from lenovo.com/au The Idea Tab Pro sits in the mid-range of Lenovo’s current tablet lineup, and arguably in the sweet spot when it comes to price and performance. For just a little more than the Idea Tab Plus (see p75) you get a bigger 12.7in screen, a faster MediaTek Dimensity CPU and a stronger spec in every other area except storage, where the base model comes with just 128GB to the Idea Tab Plus’s 256GB. Buying it involves making the odd compromise, but nothing unreasonable when you keep the price in mind. This is a solidly built, big-screen device, with a sturdy aluminium unibody shell and the screen enclosed in tempered glass. Held horizontally, you’ll find a power button with integrated fingerprint sensor high up on the left-hand…

PRICE $799 from apple.com/au The iPad Mini might be the perfect portable media device. At 195 x 135 x 6mm and only 293g in weight for the Wi-Fi-only version, it’s about as light and compact as a tablet gets. In the hand, it’s little heavier than many modern phones. Yet it has the screen size and performance to run not just streaming apps and reading apps, but also games. Splash out on Apple’s superb Pencil or Pencil Pro stylus and it also makes an effective digital notepad or sketchpad. The build quality is, as ever for Apple, phenomenally good, with a one-piece recycled aluminium shell and scratch-resistant tempered glass screen. The controls sit on the top edge, with two volume buttons and a power button that doubles as a touch…

PRICE $599 from tcl.com.au If there’s one good reason to buy TCL’s 11in slate, it’s the screen. Its matte surface makes it easier to read in nearly all lighting conditions, while a button on the top allows it to switch between three modes. In the default Regular mode it works much like a normal tablet screen, but in the Colour Paper and Ink Paper mode it simulates an e-ink display, giving you soft, less saturated colours or a highly legible monochrome display. Either works brilliantly for reading ebooks, digital magazines and comics or graphic novels, giving you a much more comfortable reading experience than your average IPS panel. Surprisingly, it’s a decent screen for running apps and watching video, with a maximum brightness level of 574cd/m2 and a respectable 1,381:1…

At a glance, innovation may seem absent in the tablet market. This year’s crop looks exactly like last year’s, right? But change is happening, and not always for the better. There are some positive changes. More tablets now come with pens, AI is gaining traction, and some even offer laptop levels of performance. But tablets also seem to be getting bigger. Perhaps it’s a result of the focus on media streaming and productivity, but 10 and 11in devices are becoming rarer, while 12 and 13in devices are increasingly the norm. I’m not sure this is always a good thing. The smaller form factor of the Galaxy Tab S11 or basic iPad still works fine for streaming and browsing. You can run a wide range of apps effectively, and all on…

IT WILL TAKE20 minutes YOU’LL NEEDGmail or other webmail account Instead of using an app or program to take notes, try the drafts feature in your webmail service. That way, your reminders and notes are accessible whether you’re sitting at your computer, out and about with your phone, or logging in through a friend’s browser. It’s a beautifully simple solution – and it’s free. We’ll show you how to get started using Gmail (www.gmail.com) but the principle is the same in other webmail services, including Outlook/ Hotmail. Step 1 Open Gmail and click Compose 1. If you’re using the Gmail app rather than the browser, the button floats at the bottom of the window. You can also achieve the same thing using the iPhone/iPad’s default Mail app by tapping the…

WINDOWS 10 & 11 Disable a stuck Caps Lock using Shift If your Caps Lock key is stuck into typing capital letters, you can disable it by pressing Shift. In Windows 10, right-click the Start menu then select ‘Time & Language’ followed by Language. Next, scroll down and select ‘Spelling, typing, & keyboard settings’ followed by ‘Advanced keyboard settings’. Now click ‘Language bar options’ to open the ‘Text Services and Input Languages’ box, then click the Advanced Key Settings tab and select ‘Press the SHIFT key’. Click OK to confirm. In Windows 11, open ‘Time & language’ then click Typing. Next, click ‘Advanced keyboard settings’ followed by ‘Language bar options’ (1 in our screenshot below). Now click Advanced Key Settings 2 and select ‘Press the SHIFT key’ 3. Click OK.…

iOS FILTER MESSAGES FROM UNKNOWN SENDERS As most of you are likely aware, there’s a spam epidemic that isn’t going away. We’ve complained about the meagre protection against unsolicited texts in the Messages app for iPhone and iPad before. Apple must have listened, because iOS 26 improves how the app deals with messages from unknown senders. A new Screen Unknown Senders feature automatically filters messages from numbers that aren’t in your Contacts to an Unknown Senders folder. You can access this in the app’s top-right menu (see screenshot 1 below). If a message is from a legitimate source, tap ‘Mark as Known’ to move it to your main conversation list. Any future messages from that number won’t be filtered. The new option is disabled by default, unless you previously enabled…

PRICE $35.95 PLATFORM PC, Mac, Linux WEB tinyurl.com/APC554demon Demonschool operates on an explore-talk-fight loop: main story quests advance the day, with each segment broken up by a fight. Each new day brings new NPCs to talk to, or party members begging for karaoke to advance their friendship (aka future makeout prospect) meter. Island exploration does a ton for worldbuilding, sprinkling in juicy lore; a man who remembers an ever-decreasing number of his children, or a shrine that gets chattier the more I visit. This flavour text really boosts Demonschool’s story beyond a setup that doesn’t do much new. But through its dialogue and a likeable cast of characters, I didn’t mind. Demonschool boasts a huge roster of 15 demon hunters, though not all shine equally. The vast ensemble does make…

RELEASE May 14, 2024 EXPECT TO PAY $13.99 WEB store.steampowered.com Once upon a time, I stumbled upon a fairytale-themed walking sim with only one rule that must be broken. As one of six sisters dutifully setting out to fulfil a basketful of familial obligation, wolves in various forms lurk within the wood beyond. You’re instructed to go to Grandmother’s house and stay on the path, but to get the most out of this experience, you must ‘let go’ of the controls and allow each girl to disappear among the trees. RIP Angela Carter – you would’ve loved 2009’s The Path. The Path’s deliberate slow pace wants you to drink in the forest; you’ll find glowing flowers, scattered tableaux and a little girl dressed in white who will lead you back…