Table of contents for 653 in Computeractive

Sometimes it feels like you’ve got more chance of finding a wombat that speaks Esperanto than whatever you’re searching for on Google. Once you’ve scrolled past the adverts, lists, questions and irrelevant websites, you may stumble upon some decent results – though by then you’ve forgotten what you were looking for (it probably wasn’t multilingual marsupials). At heart Google remains an exceptional search engine. But more than ever you need to master certain tactics to get past the rubbish. Robert Irvine explains the best tips in his Cover Feature, such as filtering results by topic, getting more accurate outcomes in ‘snippets’, and combining images and text in searches. He also reveals tricks that Google won’t want you to learn, including eradicating adverts in results, removing links that track you, and…

ROYAL MAIL EXTENDS FREE ‘PARCEL COLLECT’ Royal Mail has extended the free trial of its Parcel Collect service until 2 April. It collects parcels from your work, home or a ‘safeplace’ and delivers them, saving you having to visit the Post Office. The service normally costs 72p on top of the postage cost, or 60p if you’re returning a parcel that has prepaid postage. You can book a collection at www.royalmail.com/collection. UK MISSES OUT ON NETFLIX PRICE CUTS Netflix is cutting prices in more than 30 countries, but the UK isn’t one of them. It confirmed it’s “updating pricing plans in certain countries”, thought to include Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kenya, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia and Thailand. However, prices will stay the same in countries where Netflix has more subscribers, such as…

Nokia has released a budget smartphone that you can repair yourself should you break it. It has teamed up with self-repair company iFixit to offer repair equipment for the new G22 phone, which costs £149.99 and runs Android 12. There are four spare parts available from iFixit’s website (www.snipca.com/45240): a charge port (£18.99); a battery and back cover (£22.99 each); and a screen (£44.99). They come with tweezers, magnetic screwdrivers, and a guitar pick-like implement for removing batteries (pictured). HMD Global, the Finnish firm that owns Nokia, says G22 owners can use these parts to carry out the most common phone repairs, which are replacing a broken screen, charging port or flat battery. Using iFixit’s official tools won’t void your warranty. However, Nokia’s G-series of phones receive only two years…

We have a new contender for the most manipulative scam of all time. Hackers have now found a way to use artificial intelligence (AI) to impersonate the voices of real people. All they need is a short audio sample of the genuine voice and software that’s cheaply available online. With a few clicks they can make the voice say whatever they like. This latest scam is yet to hit the UK, but it has already claimed victims on the other side of the Atlantic. Ruth Card, a 73-year-old from Regina in Canada, received a call from what sounded like her grandson Brandon. He said that he had been arrested, with no wallet or phone, and needed money for bail. She told The Washington Post that she could sense fear in…

BT ‘bill is ready’ email About five days after my scheduled email from BT confirming my latest monthly bill, I received another one that used the same subject line (‘Your bill is ready’). That confused me, but then I noticed that the BT logo didn’t appear properly in the email body and that the font looked outdated. Apart from that, it had links to ‘view your bill online’ rather than the purple button you find in BT’s official emails. It did mention the correct billing dates – in this case 10/2/2023 to 10/3/2023 – but it was obviously a scam. Action Fraud has warned about it: www.snipca.com/45157. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

We now know why Neocore won’t upgrade reader Gerald Livesey’s tablet to Android 12: it’s going to skip this version and update tablets to Android 13 instead. As we reported in Issue 651, Gerald bought the Neocore E2 tablet (pictured) last July because the company claimed it could be updated to Android 12. This version of Android was released in October 2021, so Gerald had expected his tablet to be updated by now. However, there’s often a gap of many months – and sometimes years – between Google releasing a new version of Android and making the update available for manufacturers to install on their tablets. Neocore told us that the gap between Google making Android 12 and 13 available was only one month, so it decided there was no…

I’ve found a relative called William Prentice in the 1921 Scottish census on ScotlandsPeople. However, he’s listed among many names, with no address, just a note saying he was a lodger. How can I find out where he lived? A list of names without an address usually means they were in some form of institution, such as a school, hospital, poorhouse, or military base. On the page showing William’s census image is a button marked ‘View header’. Clicking this gives free access to the front page of the enumerator’s book noting the relevant address. In this case, William is shown to be with the Queen’s Own Regiment Yeomanry, and ‘in camp’ at Lanark Race Course. Have a genealogy question for Chris? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the…

What’s a free alternative to Norton antivirus? Q On your recommendation, I ditched Kaspersky for Norton 360, and I’ve been pleased with it. However, after every scan I see a warning page asking me to pay to remove junk on my PC. I have no intention of doing this, so can you recommend a free alternative? James Cairns A Norton 360’s ads are annoying, but you can turn them off. Open Norton 360 (click its icon in the system tray), select Settings, Administrative Settings, then scroll to the bottom of the list and change the Special Offer Notification setting to Off. You could ditch Norton altogether and instead use Microsoft Defender. Although Defender doesn’t offer the same breadth of tools as paid-for security suites like Norton 360, as we revealed in Issue…

LAPTOP | £1,199 from Acer www.snipca.com/45140 This compact laptop, designed for ultimate portability, weighs a shade over 1kg. In fact it’s so light you’ll barely notice it in a backpack. And despite its slight 16.8mm thickness, it’s well-built and has a classy all-black finish. The P6’s 14in screen has a modest, but more than adequate resolution of 1920x1200 pixels. We would have preferred purer whites – we found ourselves turning it up to its maximum 366cd/m2 brightness level to counteract a faint yellow bias – but its colour accuracy is pretty decent, covering 99 per cent of the sRGB standard and 79 per cent of the more demanding DCI-P3. “A decent screen, keyboard and battery life, but its processor is a bit long in the tooth” The keyboard is a…

PHONE | From £729 from Amazon www.snipca.com/45226 The latest phone from Chinese firm OnePlus offers an amazing level of performance and value, as long as you’re willing to accept a few trade-offs. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the processor that first appeared in the RedMagic 8 Pro we reviewed in Issue 652. It’s also present in the latest Samsung Galaxy S23 models. In our benchmark tests it proved smooth and fast. Games are the biggest challenge for any mobile processor, but on this device everything we threw at it ran without problems – having more impressive graphics than even the iPhone 14. “Competing with high-end rivals, it skimps on design in favour of performance” The best thing about this phone is probably the price. It costs £729…

Where can I buy a used Windows 10 laptop? Q Having read your ‘What Should I Buy?’ in Issue 651 (“Can you suggest a £500 laptop for everyday tasks?”), I wonder if it’s worth buying a laptop running Windows 10, if indeed they are still available? With the advent of Windows 11 there must be many relatively new second-hand machines on the market. Peter Jackson A There are plenty of second-hand laptops available to buy, but it’s hard to recommend a particular model, because you never know what state a used device is going to be in. However, if you don’t mind the odd scratch or dent in your new laptop, it’s worth shopping around laptop outlets. You usually get a warranty that will guarantee it for at least a year. Start…

With an ultra-portable, slim and lightweight aluminium design – available in silver or black – Toshiba’s Canvio hard drives store your files and help you easily back up your content. The drive is powered by USB 3.2 Gen 1 technology, which means they’re much faster than – though still compatible with – USB 2.0 devices, allowing for speedy transfers when organising your files. You can keep your files protected by using Toshiba Storage Security Software. The Toshiba Storage Backup Software lets you make regular automatic backups of up to 2TB of data – simply choose your individual files or folders, intervals and time settings for your backups, and let the software take care of the rest. To enter this competition, answer the question at www.snipca.com/45150 and submit your details. It…

1 Type chrome:flags into Chrome’s address bar and press Enter to load the Experiments page. Find the entry Read Anything 1, click the dropdown menu next to it and select Enabled 2. Relaunch the browser to apply the change. 2 When Chrome reopens, visit a web page you want to convert to a reader-friendly view and click the ‘Show side panel’ button 1. Click the dropdown menu, select ‘Read anything’ 2 and the decluttered page will be displayed in the side panel. 3 Resize the side panel by dragging its border to the left, then use the options on the toolbar to customise how the content looks. You can change the font 1, make the text larger or smaller, apply a dark or colour theme 2, and adjust the spacing.…

Tomb Raider Reloaded Free* Android www.snipca.com/45138 iOS www.snipca.com/45139 Fans of Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider franchise will be delighted by this new mobile version of the classic game, which involves you guiding the iconic character through underground tombs, caves, jungles and waterfalls. There are new puzzles to solve, weapons to use and enemies to battle, including a T-Rex. Geekbench 6 Free Android www.snipca.com/45136 iOS www.snipca.com/45137 Benchmarking tool Geekbench has updated its mobile app in line with its new PC version (see Issue 652, page 18). It tests the CPU and GPU of your phone or tablet with resource-intensive tasks (which now include several new tests) then lets you compare the results with other users’ devices. Moodistory Free*/£6.99 Android www.snipca.com/45142 iOS www.snipca.com/45143 New to Android, this mood-tracking app lets you…

ONLYOFFICE Use new formulas to split spreadsheet cells OnlyOffice 7.3 (released in January) includes a set of new formulas that were already available in Microsoft Excel. Two of these formulas make it much easier to chop unwanted text from cells: TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER. As its name suggests, TEXTBEFORE keeps only the text before a character or word you specify, while TEXTAFTER keeps only the text after this point. In this example, we’ve got a list of email addresses, but we want to keep only the username – in other words, the text before the ‘@’ symbol. With our first email address in cell A2, in B2 we type =TEXTBEFORE(A2,"@") – 1 in our screenshot. This leaves only the first part of the email address (the person’s name) in cell B2…

JANUARY • Parasol and Brookson• Safestyle UK• Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust FEBRUARY • KP Snacks MARCH • c2c trains• Greencore• Wightlink APRIL • Funky Pigeon• The Works MAY • Graham & Brown• Port of London Authority JUNE • Apetito• Clarion• Yodel JULY • British Army• Marriott International AUGUST • Cisco• Sheppard Robson• South Staffordshire PLC SEPTEMBER • Go-Ahead• InterContinental Hotels Group • Revolut OCTOBER • Kingfisher• Pendragon NOVEMBER • Silverstone DECEMBER • Arnold Clark• The Guardian…

You can now record your screen using Windows 11’s Snipping Tool, as part of Microsoft’s latest major update for the operating system. There are also new tools for Notepad and Task Manager in the update, which is the second of Microsoft’s ‘Moments’ series of new tools for Windows 11. It announced this type of update last year as a way to add tools to Windows 11 “when they are ready”, rather than waiting for the annual Feature update in the autumn. To use the new screen-recording tool, open Snipping Tool by searching for it or by pressing Windows key+Shift+S, then click the Record (camcorder) icon – see screenshot 1. Now click the New button, and you’ll notice your screen going darker and that your mouse cursor has changed into crosshairs.…

WH Smith has said that customer accounts weren’t affected by a cyber-attack that saw hackers access information about current and former staff. It said that hackers may have stolen staff data including names, addresses, National Insurance numbers and dates of birth, but the attack didn’t affect its website nor its stores. The Information Commissioner’s Office, which investigates data breaches, said it was aware of the incident. In a short statement filed at the London Stock Exchange, it said: “WH Smith takes the issue of cyber-security extremely seriously and investigations into the incident are ongoing.” “Upon becoming aware of the incident, we immediately launched an investigation, engaged specialist support services and implemented our incident response plans, which included notifying the relevant authorities,” it added. WH Smith said that it has put…

Mountain rescuers have urged hikers not to use Google Maps for navigation after finding a man who was lost for 20 hours in the Lake District. Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team (WMRT) said the walker was extremely lucky to survive. He had got stuck on the ridge between Scafell Pike and Great End after navigating with Google Maps on his phone. More than nine rescue teams, five search dogs and two drones were involved in the operation. WMRT said: “We rarely comment on a rescue, but in this case we would like to say he was very, very fortunate to have survived.” It added: “We also have to say that Google Maps on smartphones are not suitable for navigating on the hills. They lack detail and of course will not work…

What’s the threat? Scammers are creating fake ChatGPT tools to spread malware, exploiting the huge interest in the new AI tool. Security researchers have found false apps listed on the Google Play Store (see screenshot 1) and Facebook 2, as well as at the URL ‘chat-gpt-pc.online’. Earlier this year ChatGPT launched a $20 monthly service to use the tool without restrictions. Some of the fake tools promise to bypass this payment by giving you unrestricted access for free. Another false site (‘pay.chatgptftw.com’) claims to offer a way to pay for the premium version, but simply steals your payment-card details. Downloading tools from these sources installs various forms of malware, including Aurora, which was first sold on the Russian dark web last year. It’s a powerful botnet that can steal information…

On a recent Friday, the builders replacing my front door managed to slice through and rip the BT cable and junction box off the wall. I wanted to get back online as soon as possible, so phoned my broadband and landline provider Plusnet and asked for help. They booked an appointment for an engineer to visit on the following Monday, which impressed me. But then as Plusnet asked me questions they realised I am registered disabled. They responded to this information by bringing the appointment forward to Saturday – ie, the next day! Not holding my breath, I was astounded to receive a call from Openreach on Saturday that the engineer was just 15 minutes away. In less than an hour the engineer had repaired the fault and replaced the…

DRIVE OPTIMISER SSD Fresh 2023 www.snipca.com/45222 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 Solid-state drives (SSDs) are much faster than traditional hard drives, but they can suffer performance problems when they’re not configured correctly. SSD Fresh offers a simple way to analyse and optimise your drive, and potentially extend its life. This new version has a redesigned interface that makes the program even easier to use, and provides additional data about your SSD. When you run SSD Fresh, it tells you your SSD’s current ‘health status’ and temperature, and lets you perform an analysis to find out which processes are writing data to the drive. You can also see how much free space is available and your system’s level of optimisation. Click the ‘Optimise automatically’ button and SSD…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Process Lasso’s deviously delayed pop-ups Process Lasso (www.snipca.com/44169) is not a how-to manual for cowboys, but a very handy tool that helps your PC to tick over smoothly. In fact, we liked this Task Manager alternative so much, we gave it a glowing write-up as recently as in Issue 646 (page 19). Since then, however, it’s started to get on our wick. Craftily, it waits a couple of weeks before it starts pestering you with pop-ups. Our editor Daniel Booth was the first to notice these. He urged me to give it a look, but I didn’t see anything after installing it. I told him he was seeing things and advised a lie-down. It turns out Daniel’s faculties aren’t deceiving him, because a couple of weeks later I…

What does it do? Bluetooth is the close-range wireless communication technology that connects devices to wireless peripherals. Most headphones, for example, use it to connect to smartphones, computers and other audio devices. Announced back in 2021, Bluetooth 5.3 is the latest version of the technology, and it’s finally becoming more common in new devices, such as the OnePlus 11 5G (reviewed left) and the Edifier R19BT speakers (pictured right). How does it work? Bluetooth 5.3 works in the same way as previous versions, using radio waves to transmit data from one device to another over short distances. The connection between the paired devices has to be agreed and secured at both ends (which prevents other people wirelessly connecting to your devices). It is limited to two paired devices, so unlike…

What is it? Realme says that its new GT 3 phone (pictured) will feature 240W charging – the fastest-charging phone to date. This is exciting because it’s the follow-up to our current favourite Android phone, the GT 2. What does it do? Realme says that 240W of power will charge the GT 3 from empty to full in just nine minutes. What’s the catch? Interestingly, 240W is the maximum power that can be transferred by the current USB-C standard. In theory, this means the GT 3 should be as fast as charging can get, until phone manufacturers choose a different charging technology, or USB-C gets some kind of upgrade. So can I do without it? Charging phones this quickly isn’t essential, but it’s certainly cheaper and more convenient than leaving…

What you need: Kindle or Kobo; iPad or Android tablet Time required: One hour Tablets aren’t always the best devices for reading. That’s particularly true late at night when the glow of their backlit screens can interfere with sleep patterns. But there is an alternative. Amazon’s Kindle e-readers are very effective not only when reading ebooks, but PDFs too – and they even have built-in note-taking tools. If you’ve bought a Kindle Scribe (£410 from www.snipca.com/45113, pictured), you can use its stylus – called the Premium Pen – to make handwritten notes. And, if you don’t, you can attach typed notes to sections of text using a regular Kindle’s built-in keyboard. This issue, we’ll show you how to transfer PDFs to your Kindle, as well as to an iPad and…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Play podcasts on your smart speaker I had dismissed smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo as pointless gimmicks until my son bought me one for Christmas (the 2022 version of the Echo Dot from www.snipca.com/45105, pictured). I knew you could listen to music and radio on it, but I didn’t realise you could also play podcasts. I now listen to new podcasts every day. Some of the podcasts are free on Amazon Music, which is built into the Echo. But I prefer Spotify, so I linked it to the Echo by opening the Alexa app on my phone or tablet, then tapping the More icon in the bottom toolbar. I then tapped Settings, followed by ‘Music & Podcasts’, then Link New Service. I then tapped ‘Enable to…

Volume Master Chromium www.snipca.com/45124 The volume controls in web browsers are limited to ‘on’ and ‘off’ – if you want to make audio louder or quieter, you need to visit the page that’s playing the content or use the volume settings in Windows. Volume Master lets you control the sound level of the current tab by clicking its toolbar button and adjusting its slider (see screenshot). You can boost the volume to 600 per cent or drag the slider to the left to make the audio quieter or mute it. The extension lists all the tabs that are playing audio and lets you switch to them with a single click to change their volume. It also shows the volume percentage on its toolbar icon, and lets you switch its appearance…

CoinsUK Free* Android www.snipca.com/45144 iOS www.snipca.com/45145 Ideal for numismatists (coin collectors), this app keeps a checklist of the size and value of your collection of 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2 coins. It also includes pre-1997 coin denominations and Crown coins, and provides detailed info about each coin including its mintage, year of issue and design. Best For Collecting British coins Discogs Free Android www.snipca.com/45149 iOS www.snipca.com/45148 No record collector should be without the Discogs app, which makes it easy to catalogue your vinyl collection and check the value of the singles and albums you own. You can scan barcodes or enter details manually to find matches in the massive Discogs database, and share a list of your ‘most wanted’ items. Best For Valuing your record collection…

Set up QR code for members’ payments One of the most effective ways of receiving one-off payments from club members is to create a QR code. You simply need to encode your payment details into the code and then print it, send it to members, or show it on screen. By scanning the code on their smartphone they’ll be directed to a page where they can add money to your account. It’s fairly straightforward, but there are a few potential problems to navigate. We’ll explain everything here. Sign up to PayPal and install the app There are several methods of creating a QR code, but we’re going to use PayPal because it remains one of the most widely used payment systems in the world. If you want to use another…

Search a specific site You can search a specific website using Google’s ‘site’ command. For example, type site: techradar.com Windows 11 to search our sister site TechRadar for Windows 11 articles. Exclude words from searches To make results more relevant, tell Google not to include specific words in your searches by placing hyphens in front of them. For example, air fryer-amazon will exclude Amazon pages. Use an asterisk wildcard Using asterisks in place of words you can’t remember in your search query – such as Martin * money saving * - lets Google know there’s something missing so it can fill in the gaps. Search for two things at once Putting an AND between two search terms tells Google to only show you pages that contain both those queries –…

The easiest option for Office 2013 users is to stick with the software after 11 April. After all, it won’t suddenly stop working on that date – it just won’t receive security updates and Microsoft will no longer provide technical support (see screenshot). However, continuing to use Office 2013 once support has ended will put your data at risk from opportunistic hackers who know that security flaws in the software are no longer being ‘patched’ by Microsoft. Only last month, a new zero-day vulnerability was discovered that aimed to “convince a potential victim to execute a specially crafted file on their system, which would result in the bypass of Microsoft Office security features that would normally block macros from being executed” (www.snipca.com/45245). Office is already a popular target for cybercriminals…

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT Can I charge an iPad wirelessly? Q I’ve been trying to help an elderly lady who has macular degeneration. Using some Apple accessibility features, she manages to use the 9th-generation iPad she bought a couple of months ago reasonably well, but she has great difficulty locating the power socket and inserting the power cable. A friend of hers suggested getting a wireless charger, but compatibility seems to be a problem. I found a Belkin Qi charger at Argos for £20, but the description and packaging was confusing. During a live chat with someone at Belkin I was told it wasn’t possible, but a text chat with Apple informed me an iPad can be charged wirelessly. I asked him if Apple sold a wireless charger for iPads,…

More Windows 7 and 8.1 users have switched to Windows 10 than 11 since Microsoft ended support for the operating systems in January. The proportion of Windows computers running 10 rose by 4.39 per cent in February to 73.25 per cent – its biggest monthly increase in years. Windows 11 use also increased, but by just 1.01 per cent to 19.13 per cent. Windows 7’s market share almost halved in February, falling from 9.55 to 5.34 per cent, while 8.1 use fell to 1.14 per cent. See the figures at www.snipca.com/45266.…

SIGN UP FOR VIRGIN’S SOCIAL TARIFF QUICKER Virgin Media customers no longer need to repeatedly prove they’re on benefits in order to get its Essentials social tariff package. The company has started using the Government’s new scheme that automatically checks whether a customer is eligible. Virgin’s Essentials costs from £12.50 a month for 15Mbps (www.snipca.com/45255). Sky is the only other major provider to use automatic checking (see Issue 650, page 8). GET 60GB OF SMARTY DATA FOR £10 A MONTH Virtual mobile network Smarty is offering 60GB of data to new customers in a SIM-only deal that costs £10 a month. This is double the normal amount of data available for the price. The offer, which runs until 9 May, comes with EU roaming and unlimited calls and texts, and…

Tesco Mobile will increase its prices by 14.4 per cent in April, ending the price freeze it announced last year. It’s the latest network to confirm record price increases, following Virgin Mobile and O2’s decision to raise prices by 17.3 per cent in April. Tesco Mobile said that the only way new customers can avoid mid-contract price rises in future would be by signing up to one of its Clubcard Price deals. The increase affects pay-monthly customers whose contract expired before 1 February. If you’re one of them, you can leave Tesco Mobile without paying a fee because your contract has ended. If your contract has expired since then or is due to expire before 31 January 2024, your monthly price will rise from April 2024. This increase will be…

ITVX STREAMING ARRIVES ON SKY Q BOXES ITVX is now available on Sky Q boxes, three months after it launched. You can find it on Sky Q’s Apps rail or Apps menu. The streaming service has replaced ITV Hub, and is available for free without adverts. You can pay £5.99 a month or £59.99 a year to remove ads and watch shows on BritBox. Try a free seven-day trial – see Issue 652, page 63. Read more at www.snipca.com/45205. EXPLORE NEW ZEALAND IN FLIGHT SIMULATOR Microsoft has updated Flight Simulator with new images of New Zealand, letting you fly over locations including Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Aoraki/Mount Cook (pictured) and Milford Sound fjord. It also includes Hobbiton on North Island, where the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed. They’re all…

This screenshot looks harmless enough, but it’s showing a persistent problem: ‘open in app’ alerts. There’s one at the bottom from Reddit, asking you to switch from its website to its app. It wants you to do this because it means you’ll lose any privacy protections offered by your browser, allowing it to gobble up more of your personal data. Thankfully, privacy-focused browser Brave has other ideas. Version 1.49, due for release in March, blocks these alerts by default. They’ve been blocked in the iOS version (www.snipca.com/45208) since October, but Brave is now doing so in its Android app (www.snipca.com/45209), as well as its browser for computers (https://brave.com). They’ll be blocked automatically – you won’t need to do anything – though Brave will give you the option to allow them.…

Contact us so we can investigate your case Email: consumeractive@computeractive.co.uk Please include your name, phone number and address. LEAD CASE Can TalkTalk charge me for terminating my contract? Q I saw an advert for portable broadband from TalkTalk and signed up, but when the router arrived it required a phone line. I contacted TalkTalk and cancelled the order, returning the router. I went back to Sky but TalkTalk is now trying to charge me £71. Don’t I have a cooling-off period? Cheryl Campbell A Yes, Cheryl does have a cooling-off period of 14 days. As long as you cancel within this time period, you don’t have to pay an early-cancellation fee. If you use the service at any point during this time, you have to pay for any data or call…

If you have an ancestor who lost their life in one of the two world wars, you can try to find where they were buried or commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s website (www.cwgc.org). The organisation is responsible for the commemoration of 1.7 million personnel from across the Commonwealth, buried within 153 countries, as well as civilians who died during World War 2. Search by name, regiment and service number To start your search, click ‘Find War Dead’ at the top left, followed by ‘Find Records’. Here, I’ll search for my wife’s great-uncle, Martin Colleton, using his name (1 in our screenshot above right) and Connaught Rangers as his regiment 2. I don’t know his service number so I left that blank 3, but I selected United Kingdom as…

Drug dealer Joshua Bennetts (pictured) taunted Gloucestershire Police on Facebook after they put out a wanted appeal when he skipped bail. He quipped they “coulda used a better picture” and posted pictures of himself enjoying life on the run. Alas, the high life in the Costa da Gloucester was cut short when police spotted him and carted him off to court, where he was subsequently sentenced to two years in jail for the supply of cocaine and cannabis. “He may have thought himself a joker, but in reality Bennetts was bringing misery to communities with his drug dealing,” said Detective Constable Freya Smith. On the plus side for Bennetts, he’s probably had a nice new picture taken upon arrival in prison.…

Find out which other products we liked. Buy our new 2022 Back Issue CD: £17 from www.snipca.com/44660 LAPTOP Acer Swift 3 14in £999 from www.snipca.com/44367 Tested Issue 648 Comes with a powerful 12th-generation Intel processor and 1TB SSD to make Windows tasks feel incredibly fast. Also has a decent 2560x1440-pixel IPS screen and comes with plenty of ports, including two Thunderbolt 4-compatible USB-C. ALTERNATIVE Lenovo Yoga 6 Gen 7 Has a slower processor, and half the storage and RAM, but remains a good laptop for the price. £649 from www.snipca.com/44950 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 £749 from www.snipca.com/42211 Tested Issue 634 Samsung has replaced its own Tab S7+ to become our favourite Android tablet. It’s fast with a stunning 11in screen, and has a longer battery life than the…

The process for sending a PDF to a Kobo e-reader is similar to the drag-and-drop method we outlined for Kindles. Connect your Kobo to your computer using its USB cable and, when ‘Computer detected’ appears on the screen, tap the Connect button. Now open File Explorer in Windows and look for your Kobo in the sidebar. Open it, then drag and drop the PDF that you want to copy across in the main part of the window. Once the transfer is done, right-click your Kobo and click Eject on the menu to disconnect it from your computer. Unplug the USB cable and you’ll see an ‘Importing content’ message on the Kobo screen. Once finished, your PDF will appear on the Home screen. Tap it to open it.…

EDGE Share files and notes between devices using Drop Microsoft has finally added its long-awaited Drop feature to Edge. This new tool, which we first wrote about in Issue 645, based on a beta version of the browser, lets you easily share files and notes across your desktop PC, laptop and mobile devices, saving you the trouble of emailing them to yourself. Drop isn’t yet enabled by default in Edge, which means you need to activate it manually. To do so, type edge://flags in the browser’s address bar, press Enter and find the Enable Drop experiment. Click the dropdown menu next to it, select Enabled and restart Edge. When the browser reopens, click the three-dot menu and choose Settings then Appearance. Scroll down to the ‘Select which buttons to show…

ANDROID Disguise your email address in Firefox Firefox for Android (www.snipca.com/45135) is one of the few mobile browsers that lets you install add-ons – as you can with its desktop counterpart. The latest version of the app (110) adds support for four more extensions that bring useful new features to Firefox on your phone or tablet. The most notable addition is Mozilla’s Firefox Relay add-on, which lets you disguise your email address when you sign up with websites, to protect it from spammers and scammers. It works by generating fake email addresses called ‘email masks’, which forward messages to your real inbox without compromising your privacy. Tap the three-dot menu and select Add-ons, then tap the plus sign next to Firefox Relay and choose Add. Tap ‘Okay, Got it’ to…

WINDOWS 10 & 11 Reset your audio settings Windows gives you plenty of options to customise your computer’s audio settings to suit your preferences, but it’s easy to reset them if you want to start again. In Windows 10 press Windows key+I to open Settings, then click Sound on the left. Scroll down the main pane on the right and under ‘Advanced sound options’ click ‘App volume and device preferences’. The next page will show your current output and input settings for your master volume, as well as for system sounds and software that’s capable of producing audio, such as browsers. Check whether they’re what you want, and if not click Reset at the bottom (1 in our screenshot below) to restore them to Microsoft’s defaults. You’ll see a message…

Who’s he? The star of a new children’s ebook titled The Wise Little Squirrel: A Tale of Saving and Investing (pictured). In the story, Sammy finds a gold coin, then builds an acorn-shaped piggy bank and with help from Benny the Bear and Lily the Chipmunk invests in an acorn-trading business. His dream is to make enough money to buy his own acorn-grinding stone. Sounds charming, but why are you telling us about it? Because it’s one of hundreds of books now available on Amazon that were written by artificial intelligence (AI). Its creator, Brett Schickler, told Reuters that he asked ChatGPT to “write a story about a dad teaching his son about financial literacy”. Even the illustrations were produced by AI. Shickler has made enough money from the sales…

The figures are startling. In the first six months of 2022 at least 34 Russian gangs stole more than 50 million passwords from nearly 900,000 infected computers across 111 countries. Thousands of Amazon and PayPal accounts were among those hacked. This wave of attacks continued for the rest of 2022 and has intensified in 2023. The reason for the rise is that attacks have become so easy to perform. Scammers can buy malware on the Russian dark web that launches automated attacks. Hardly any technical expertise is required. Just as worrying is the rise of Russian ransomware. Research last year showed that nearly 75 per cent of all ransom payments went to Russian hackers. The biggest threat is posed by the LockBit gang, which in January demanded $80m (£65.7m) from…

Does LTE mean my phone works on 4G? Q Following Issue 650’s advice (page 60) on how to check whether a phone can work on 4G networks, I found that my phone lists 2G, 3G and LTE, but not 4G. Does LTE mean it will work on 4G? My phone is a Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite, and I’m on a Virgin Mobile contract. Alan Thomas A The terms LTE and 4G are sometimes used interchangeably, although they are different. LTE is actually one of several standards that can be legitimately described as fourth-generation mobile data technologies. In your case, the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite (pictured left) does indeed support 4G, according to the manufacturer (see www.snipca.com/45163). However, as we mentioned in the feature, you’ll also need to check with Virgin…