And reclaim hard-drive space
Computer
ISSUE 447 1 15-28APRIL2015
Should MPs get free iPads? Vo te now p8
Your friendly guide to technology
NEVER MISS
ANOTHER
iSECURITY
\ UPDATE
And install
them when
I J YOU want to
p58
FROM THE WEB
Watch lost treasures whenever you want
BEST WAY TO TAKE
TURN YOUR PHOTOS
SCREENSHOTS
How to test it page 42
INTO PANORAMAS
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Welcome
EDITORIAL
Group Editor Daniel Booth
Features Editor Jane Hoskyn
Reviews Editor Alan Lu
Technical Editor Sherwin Coelho
Contributing Editor Scott Colvey
Production Editor Graham Brown
Art Editor Katie Peat
Sorry, no technical or buying advice.
ADVERTISING
Advertisement sales & media pack
020 7907 6799
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MARKETING AND CIRCULATION
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For subscription enquiries ring 0844 815 0054
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Group Production Manager
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Production Controller
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MANAGEMENT
Managing Director John Garewal
Deputy Managing Director Tim Danton
MD of Advertising Julian Lloyd-Evans
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Company Founder Felix Dennis
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While every care was taken preparing this
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judgments are based on equipment available
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Computeractive takes no responsibility for the
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A DENNIS PUBLICATION
I Computeractive is published
fortnightly by Dennis Publishing
Ltd, 30 Cleveland Street, London WIT 4JD.
Company registered in England. Material may
not be reproduced in whole or part without the
consent of the publishers. ISSN 1461-6211
Average sales, Jan-Dec 2014, 88,274
copies per issue.
© Copyright Dennis Publishing Limited
From the Editor
As a child growing up in the Eighties, I used
to find lots of TV thrillingly scary, from the
Daleks of Doctor Who to the killer plants in
The Day of the Triffids (the latter’s credits
really were terrifying: wwwsnipca.
com/ 15 976). But my Dad always claimed
that he was exposed to far more frightening
telly back in the Fifties, namely the
Quatermass series. I’ve since downloaded
it, and have to admit he was right. It’s one
of the classic shows and films we reveal
how to record from the web in our Cover
Feature (page 50). I hope you find some
lost treasures.
Before I go. I’ve got some good news.
Following huge demand from readers,
we’ve ordered a new batch of the 2013
Back Issue CD, which you can now buy
on Amazon (visit wwwsnipca. com/16010
or search for ‘computeractive cd 2013’).
The 2014 CD is still on sale (wwwsnipca.
com/14981), though it’s selling fast.
Daniel Booth
editor@computeractive.co.uk
HCPlVTOWWWSI CDITvemW
iii5MapCro«iCBS
And radipn Iw4h*i»4ip«t,
NEVER MISSi
, AHOTHEfi
'< SECURITY
V UPDATE
J TiKJ PHi(.Ta
RECORD.
O^CLASSIC!l
THIS ISSUE IN NUMBERS
£ 200,000
Annual cost of giving
every MP a free iPad
and laptop - p8
12 hours
Battery life of the
'almost flawless' Asus
ZenBookUX305 -p22
50 miles
Directions you get
for free in TomTom's
relaunched app - p44
i HOW TO USE
I SNIPC A URLs
I We use snipcas to turn long URLs that I
■ are hard to type into ones that are j
] short and simple. They aren't websites \
i themselves, which means they won't \
\ be recognised if you type them into \
\ Google. Instead, you need to type them I
] into your browser address bar, then \
I press Enter. Doing this will take you to |
\ the correct website. \
15 -28 April 2015
Contents
15 -28 April 2015- Issue 447
RECORD
CLASSIC
TV&FILM
C O I^ever miss another
9 O security update
Get updates and fixes quickly to keep
your system safe
C O ^ messy files
O w and folders
Use these tools and tricks to bring
order to your PCs clutter
C Record classic TV & film
9 w from the web
Track down and save your all-time
favourites online
F ^ Things to do with an old
3/ XPPC-Part2
Make a home entertainment centre
Organise
files and
folders
p60
In this issue...
In every issue...
Stuart sees the error
of his ways p74
6 News
9 Question of
the Fortnight
When will robots take over
from humans?
10 Letters
12 Consumeractive
14 Protect Your Tech
16 Best Free Software
AdwCleaner 4.200
30 Buy It!
32 Competition
Win a TP-LINK TD-W8980
dual-band router
49 What's All the Fuss
About? Solid-state batteries
64 Problems Solved
70 Fast Fixes
Microsoft Word
73 Jargon Buster
74 The Final Straw
Stuart Andrews has a
harsh word with himself
4 15 -28 April 2015
AsusZenBook
UX305p22
Panasonic Lumix GM5 p28
BUY IT!
Reviews
18 Dell Venue 8 7840
This flawed Dell tablet fails to
measure up
20 LG G Flex 2
A self-repairing curved phone
21 SonyQXl
Odd add-on camera for smartphones
22 Asus ZenBook UX305
A brilliant ultra-portable laptop that
carries all before it
23 HP Stream 11
A low-cost, low-performance laptop
24 HP Colour LaserJet Pro M277
A user-friendly colour MFP
26 Canon Maxify MB5050
A good little MFP for the price
27 Cities: Skylines
Build your own virtual city
28 Panasonic Lumix GM5
Pocket-sized camera with
interchangeable lens
29 Toshiba Kira 107
A sleek laptop, but nothing new here
Workshops & Tips
14 pages of brilliant workshops and expert tips
35 Make amazing panoramas
from your photos
38 Take screenshots using
Windows
40 Edit videos on your iPad
42 Create a fake virus to test
your PC's security
43 Readers' Tips
Set hotkeys for Skype actions
44 Phone and Tablet Tips
Dictate long text messages
46 Make Windows Better
Make your mouse easier to use
47 Make Office Better
Create an Outlook folder for emails
with attachments
48 Secret Tips For... Pixlr
Computeractive
offer of the fortnight
Kaspersky Internet Security
2015 page 68
One PC for one year
NOW ONLY £17.99
Normally £39.99
Three PCs for two years
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Normally £89.99
15 -28 April 2015 5
News
The top stories in the world of technology
Hello Spartan! Microsoft's
new browser makes its debut
M icrosoft’s new browser,
codenamed Spartan, has
made its debut in the latest
version of the Windows 10
Technical Preview, called
Build 10049.
The browser will eventually
replace Internet Explorer (IE),
although the latter will still be
available in Windows 10.
Microsoft hopes Spartan will
win back the millions of
people who switched from IE
to Eirefox and Chrome.
Writing on the Windows
blog (www.snipca.
com/16029), Microsoft’s Joe
Belflore said that Spartan “is
fast, compatible and built for
the modern web”. The
company’s intention is to
make a browser that contains
fewer features than IE, and
looks more minimal.
However, Spartan will
contain several key features
that IE lacks, some of which
are available in the version
now available. This includes
the ability to annotate web
pages, which Microsoft calls
‘inking’. Using your keyboard
or a stylus (see image), you
can type or write notes, and
highlight areas.
This version of Spartan also
contains Reading List, a tool
that lets you save web pages
and PDEs to read later, and
Reading View, which removes
any unnecessary content from
a web page, such as adverts,
letting you see only text and
relevant images.
But Belfiore warned that
this version of the browser is
not “a polished, ready-for-
everyone release”. It also lacks
a browsing history, and
contains some flaws.
At the time of going to
press. Build 10049 was
available only to people on the
Past ‘ring’ of Windows 10
updates. To see which ring
you’re on, click the Start
COMMENT
Using Spartan for the first
time feels strange because
it looks so basic compared
with Internet Explorer (IE).
That's not a criticism of
Spartan though, more a
comment on how messy
IE has become. We like
Spartan's features, especially
the Reading View which
de-clutters web pages so
thoroughly they're as easy on
the eye as ebook pages. But
no amount of clever tools will
compensate for a browser
that's slow and prone to
crashing, flaws that plague IE.
If Spartan avoids these, it has
a bright future.
menu in Windows 10,
Settings, ‘Update & recovery’
then ‘Advanced options’.
We’ll explain how to use
Spartan in a Workshop in
Issue 448, out Wednesday
29 April.
Google's Chromebit turns your TV into a PC
Google has launched a dongle
that plugs into an HDMI slot
to turn any display, such as
your TV, into a computer
running the Chrome
operating system.
The Chromebit,
made by Asus, will go
on sale in the US this
summer priced $100. It comes Bluetooth. Google says it’s
in blue, silver or orange,
contains 2GB of memory, a
USB 2.0 port and support
for Wi-Ei 802.11ac and
“smaller than a candy bar”.
_ You’ll need to attach a
mouse and keyboard
via USB or Bluetooth
to use your TV as a PC.
The Chromebit’ s
closest rival will be
Intel’s forthcoming
Compute Stick (see
‘What’s All the Euss About?’,
Issue 442), which comes
with Windows 8.1. Google
hasn’t confirmed whether
the Chromebit will be on
sale in the UK, but it’s likely
to arrive here by the end
of 2015.
© You'll like this...
Netflix wants to remove international TV
restrictions (www.snipca.com/16035)
© ...but not this ^
One in 10 children aged 12 and 13 fear they are
addicted to web porn (www.snipca.com/16039) J
6 15 -28 April 2015
IN BRIEF
New smart plug tells you if an
elderly relative needs help
A smart plug has been
launched to help you
keep track of relatives
and friends who may
need regular assistance.
The Srings plug sends
an alert to your phone,
tablet or computer
when the person you’re
monitoring fails to
switch on a kettle,
television or other
frequently used electrical
device during a set time period
- all of which may indicate
they require urgent help.
To set it up, you plug the
device into Srings, then plug
that into an electrical socket.
It’s been developed by
Cheshire-based company
Assistage (www.assistage.com),
which tests, recommends and
sells technology that aims to
support independent living
for older people.
The products Assistage
sells are tested by the parents
of the company’s bosses,
Steve Purdham and Trevor
Brocklebank. In March,
after waking one morning,
Mr Purdham’ s mother,
83 -year-old Iris Purdham,
found that she couldn’t move.
Doctors would later identify
three compression fractures
at the base of her spine.
Her son realised she needed
help when he received a text
message at 9am
saying that her
mother, who was
testing Srings, had
yet to switch on the
kettle that day.
Talking to The
Times, Mr Purdham
said: “Most
technology will
work, but it won’t
necessarily work in
the hands of my mum. It’s
about making sure things work
in the environment they’re
supposed to”.
His mother is also testing a
system that sends a reminder
to take medication and a
thermometer that flashes blue
when the house is too cold.
Srings is available on a
12-month (£183) or 24-month
(£288) subscription from
www.3rings.co.uk. We’ll aim
to test it ourselves soon.
Facebook 'tracks your web browsing'
even if you don't have an account
fgceboo L f
fj fatebook x |
ftmk
Facebook has been accused
of breaking European law by
tracking the web browsing of
anyone who visits the site,
regardless of whether they
actually have an account
with the social network.
The claim, which Facebook
strongly denied, was made
in late March in a report
commissioned by the Belgian
data-protection agency,
following research at two
universities in the country.
It also said Facebook
continues to track people even
if they opt out of being tracked
in the site’s privacy settings.
Researchers said Facebook
places a cookie on your
computer, phone or tablet
when you visit any of its
pages, even if you don’t
have an account.
Once that’s done,
Facebook knows
when you visit a
third-party web page
that contains one of
its plug-ins, such as
a ‘Like’ or ‘Share’
button, even if you
don’t click that
button. These buttons
appear on over 13
million websites, including
some run by the Government
and the NHS.
The cookie, called ‘datr’,
allows Facebook to follow
your activity for two years.
Like many sites, Facebook
uses this information to
target adverts to you.
If the claims are true,
Facebook would be breaching
EU privacy laws, which state
that users must give consent to
allow cookies when first
visiting a website.
However, Facebook said that
the report contains “factual
inaccuracies”.
A spokesperson said: “The
authors have never contacted
us, nor sought to clarify any
assumptions upon which their
report is based. Neither did
they invite our comment on
the report before making it
public”.
AMAZON FIRE TV STICK
NOW ON SALE
Amazon is now selling its
Fire TV Stick dongle in the UK
(www.snipca.com/16005),
following its US launch last
year. At £35, it's £5 dearer
than its direct rival, the Google
Chromecast. By plugging the
Fire TV Stick into an HDMi
slot on your TV, you'll be able
to watch, via Wi-Fi, channels
and services including Netflix,
BBC iPlayer, Sky News,
Demand 5, Spotify and
Amazon's Prime instant Video.
We will review the Fire TV
Stick soon.
MAKE FREE PHONE
CALLS IN WHATSAPP
WhatsApp has updated
its Android app to let you
make free phone calls on
your mobile phone, giving
you an alternative to Skype.
Previously the app only let you
send messages. WhatsApp's
co-founder Brian Acton said
that the feature will be added
to its iOS app soon. Download
the Android app for free from
the Google Play Store: www
snipca.com/16020. We'll
show you how to use it in our
next issue, out Wed 29 April.
: Advances in robotics are [
\ increasingly being used \
\ to help people who suffer
\ from impaired movement.
I Scientists at the University of
[ Hertfordshire have spent the
I past three years developing j
\ a robotic glove to assist i
[ the rehabilitation of stroke
I patients. By pairing the glove j
? with a PC game, users can [
\ regain some mobility in their [
I hands. Watch it in action on [
I BBC Click's YouTube channel:
E www.snipca.com/15897. [
i Toiiiprrow's
i'lyiihiworld
I
15 -28 April 2015 7
News
Want a free iPad Air and laptop?
Simple - just become an MP
IN BRIEF
ANDROID DEVICES
TO GET OFFICE
Forthcoming Android devices
made by Dell and Samsung
will come with Office tools
after the companies agreed
deals with Microsoft.
Selected phones and tablets
made by the companies
will contain Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, OneNote,
OneDrive and Skype.
However, you'll need to pay
for Office 365 subscriptions
to use all the editing features
in each tool. This costs £7.99
a month or £79.99 a year
(www.snipca.com/15957).
BT OFFERS NEW MOBILE
PHONE DEALS
BT has launched its first
new mobile phone deals in
over a decade. It is offering
three 4G subscriptions, with
the cheapest priced just £5
a month for its broadband
customers (£10 for those
without BT broadband).
They are all SIM-only deals,
and all offer unlimited texts.
Visit BT's website for more
information: www.snipca.
com/15970.
Controversial plans to give
every MP a free iPad Air 2
after the General Election on
7 May have been branded
“a mistake”.
MPs will also receive a free
laptop in a scheme that will
cost £200,000 annually
during the five-year
parliament.
Since 2012, following a
proposal by the House of
Commons Commission, 209
MPs have been given taxpayer-
funded iPads in order to read
work on documents and read
committee papers wherever
they are.
But some MPs have been
caught misusing them. Last
year Nigel Mills, the
Conservative MP for Amber
Valley, was photographed
playing the game Candy Crush
on his iPad when he was
taking part in a committee
hearing on pension reforms
(see the evidence at www
snipca.com/15934) .
Shadow Cabinet Office
minister Chi Onwurah,
Labour MP for Newcastle
upon Tyne Central, referred
to Mills’ behaviour when
criticising the decision to
hand out free iPads: “As we
saw with Nigel Mills and
Candy Crush, MPs will be
using the games, and the
ITunes and other features
on the iPad”.
Talking to IT website
ComputerworldUK, Onwurah
slated the decision to lock MPs
into the Apple’s iOS operating
system at a time when the
“digital community is pushing
open source, open standards”.
She added that it was wrong
that MPs would be using a
device that many of her
constituents could not afford.
Prices for the iPad Air 2 start
from £399 on Apple’s website
(www. snipca.com/15 940) .
But Liberal Democrat John
Thurso, the Commission’s
chairman, claimed that
sticking with Apple will
actually save money. He said
that the iPads are “linked
to a programme to reduce
hard-copy printing in favour
of online publication that is
already delivering savings in
excess of £3 million per year”.
• Should MPs get a free
iPad? Vote now at www.
computeractive.co.uk
What the flip! Christian coupie removes ebooks
from app that censors swear words
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tftiWKS ihcifi. h\ unAiirq hw mud
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ill Uv.
A Christian couple from Idaho
have stopped selling ebooks
through their app Clean
Reader (www.cleanreaderapp.
com), which censors swear
words, following complaints
from authors.
Jared and Kirsten Maughan
built the free app, available for
Android and iOS, after their
teenage daughter objected to
swear words in a book she
was reading at school.
The app suggests
alternatives to swear words,
religious and sexual terms,
and certain body parts. Lor
example, the f-word becomes
‘freak’, ‘penis’ becomes
‘groin’, ‘vagina’
becomes ‘bottom’,
‘sexy’ becomes ‘lovely’
and ‘Jesus Christ’
becomes ‘gee’.
It has three settings:
‘Clean’, ‘Cleaner’ and
‘Squeaky Clean’. The
last of these extends
censorship to include
“some hurtful racial terms”.
But following a backlash
from authors, the couple said
that the app will no longer sell
ebooks because “many
authors do not want their
books being sold in
connection with Clean
Reader”.
Chocolat author Joanne
Harris helped draw attention
to the app by condemning it
in a blog post titled “Why I’m
Saying ‘L*** you’ to Clean
Reader” (www.snipca.
com/15979). Harris wrote:
“Words, if used correctly,
can achieve almost
anything. To tamper
with what is written -
however much we may
dislike certain words and
phrases - is to embrace
censorship”.
She subsequently said
she was “delighted” that the
app had stopped selling
“vandalised” books.
Should Clean Reader be
allowed to censor books?
Please let us know at letters(P
connputeractive.co.uk
8 15 -28 April 2015
Question
of the
Fortnight
When will robots take
over from humans?
Threats posed by artificial intelligence are no longer just science fiction,
leading technology figures have warned
For decades the threats posed
by robots have been the stuff
of science-fiction nightmares.
Film-makers, philosophers
and authors have depicted
dystopian futures in which
humans are enslaved by their
mechanised masters, or
rendered obsolete as jobs
become automated.
That danger suddenly feels
more real than ever as a
growing number of tech
experts warn that - if left
unchecked - the growth of
artificial intelligence (AI)
could represent a serious
threat to humanity. The latest
prophet of doom is Apple
co-founder Steve Wozniak,
who in March revealed his
unease about the rise of AI.
Talking to the Australian
Financial Review, Wozniak
said that “computers are going
to take over from humans, no
question”.
He fears that eventually
computers will “think faster
than us and they’ll get rid of
the slow humans to run
companies more efficiently”.
Wozniak hasn’t always
thought like this. He used to
dismiss the claims of people
like Ray Kurzweil, the hugely
influential computer scientist
and a director of engineering
at Google, who predict a
‘singularity’ moment at which
point AI will exceed human
intellectual capacity, and
become impossible to control.
Kurzweil has predicted this
will occur in 2045, while
others think it could arrive
much earlier. Elon Musk,
co-founder of PayPal and
space-transport company
SpaceX, has warned that
“something seriously
dangerous” could happen
before 2020.
It’s the rapid progress of AI
that has made Wozniak
more pessimistic about the
future. His comments came
a couple of months after
hundreds of leading scientists,
entrepreneurs and
technologists, including
Stephen Hawking, signed an
open letter warning about the
dangers of AI. The letter
(www.snipca. com/15906) ,
drafted by the Future of Life
Institute - an organisation
working to “mitigate
existential risks facing
humanity” - says that while
AI could eradicate poverty and
disease, there are also “potential
pitfalls”. AI systems “must do
what we want them to do”.
Elon Musk also signed
the letter. Few people have
been as vocal in highlighting
the dangers of AI. He has
described the development
of thinking robots as
“summoning the demon”, and
says they represent mankind’s
“biggest existential threat”. He
has called for an international
regulatory body to oversee the
development of AI so “we
don’t do something very
foolish”.
Step forward Google. In
2014, it created an ethics
board to monitor its work in
artificial intelligence,
following the purchase of
several robotics companies.
These include DeepMind, a
British company that makes
software to help computers
think like humans. It was
co-founded by Shane Legg,
who is just as resigned as
THE FACTS
• Apple co-founder
Steve Wozniak recently
said he was worried
about technology that
could mimic human
consciousness
• In January, Stephen
Hawking was one of
hundreds of technologists
and scientists who signed
an open letter asking
for controls on artificial
intelligence
• Google has created an
ethics board to oversee its
development of artificial
intelligence
Wozniak and Musk to the
nature of humanity’s
downfall: “Eventually, I think
human extinction will
probably occur, and technology
will likely play a part in this”.
Of course, the question of
when robots will take over is a
loaded one. It removes all
doubt, and assumes they will.
Other technology pioneers are
less gloomy. Google chairman
Eric Schmidt says that fears
over AI are “misguided”, and
sees a future in which the
human race can only gain
from advances in robotics and
computing.
But then he would say that,
wouldn’t he? After all, is there
another company that stands
to benefit as much as Google
does from a robotic future? At
the moment Schmidt appears
to be in a minority, so we can
only hope the apocalyptic
warnings of his peers will
prompt him to take the threat
more seriously.
4 i Eventually human extinction
will probably occur, and technology
will likely play a part in this J |
15 -28 April 2015 9
Tell us what's on your mind
Email: lettersCpcomputeractive.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive
Twitter: (SComputerActive
www.twitter.com/computeractive
lOOMbps? Not in my lifetime
Two news stories in Issue 446
caught my eye - Google’s desire to
help people live to 500, and the
Government’s proposal to deliver
lOOMbps broadband to every home in the
UK. Am I the only person to think the
former is more likely than the latter?
Warren Archibald
Windows 8 is best
version ever
Like many of your readers I’m
mystified by the continued
negative feedback that Windows 8 gets.
I’ve been using Windows forever and
8.1 is by far the best of the crop. I’m
using it loaded on a Vaio laptop with
an SSD, which means that from
switching on to being available for use
takes less than 30 seconds. Because
I’m a fan of the traditional Start menu,
from the early days of Windows 8 I’ve
been using the program Start8 (www
stardock.com/products/start8) , which
provides me with my familiar friendly
Start screen and menu. I’ve also learnt
to use the Charms bar, but I normally
stay with what I’m used to. Obviously, I’ll
be upgrading to Windows 10 as soon as it
becomes available in the summer. We
OAPs are still intent on staying ahead
of the youngsters!
Nick Jones
Fast broadband should
be available everywhere
George Parks seems to be a
spokesman for the Smug Urban
Dweller Society (Letters, 445).
Presumably, he also feels that those
who live in the countryside should not
have the benefit of telephone, gas,
electricity and fresh water.
As a countryside dweller I find that
the Government, public services and
private companies increasingly require
me to use broadband to get anything,
often providing no alternative means to
get things done. It is high time that
reasonable broadband speeds were made
compulsory ever 5 Avhere, and before
urban-dwellers get multi-megab34:e
services. Whether Mr Parks likes it or not,
broadband is already, and should be
treated as, a utility service.
Maurice Warwick
XP's 'death' isn't a
Shakespearean tragedy
Harry Powell can quote Monty
Python all he likes (Letters, Issue
446), but he’s neither funny nor accurate
in saying that Windows XP is dead. If it
has shuffled off this mortal coil (if Mr
Powell can quote Python, I should be
allowed to paraphrase Shakespeare),
then can someone please explain how it
is that I use it every day. Perhaps XP has
returned, like the ghost of Hamlet’s
father, to haunt my PC?
XP still works smoothly and safely on
my PC. I also have a Windows 8 laptop,
but it’s a pain to use. My XP machine is
the first one I switch on every day.
I still go online using it, and have yet to
encounter the malware that Microsoft
told us would be everywhere. Indeed, I
would say that the supposed demise of
XP is much ado about nothing!
Arthur Evans
No, PC World,
you can't eat a
Raspberry Pi
I need to tell you of a recent
experience I had at PC World in
Manchester’s Arndale Centre. I am
looking to buy a Raspberry Pi and,
knowing that PC World have them in
stock online, I visited their shop
hoping to examine one. I asked the
salesman if he had a Raspberry Pi. He
looked at me and smiled in a quizzical
way, as if I was asking for something
sweet to eat. I sensed that he had no
idea what I was talking about. He then
called another member of the staff who
1 found love online (no
Tinder required)
I share Stuart Andrews’ misgivings
about dating apps (The Final Straw,
Issue 446). I had never heard of Tinder
before, but it sounds truly horrid. I don’t
want to sound like a prude, but has the
quest for love really been reduced to
flicking through photos on a phone?
What happened to writing love letters? I
know you can be rude on a phone, but
can you actually be wooed (with thanks
to Carry On Matron)?
However, I do want to challenge the
prejudice that the older generation may
hold about dating online. There have
been lots of scare stories about scams in
which lonely, vulnerable people (both
male and female) have been conned by
charming fraudsters, who pose as
potential partners. But as long as you
don’t abandon all sense when you date
online, you should be safe.
I certainly was. I felt very lonely when
my first husband died in 2004, but I had
no desire to meet someone new, let alone
do so over the internet. But a few years
later, with some help from my daughter
(who had met her husband online), I gave
it a go on cHarmony (www.eharmony.
co.uk). Yes, there are some time-wasters
online, full of swanky talk, but I found it
easy to spot the genuine people from the
chancers (or maybe I’m just naturally
sceptical!). After a few months I started
also seemed to think that I had lost my
marbles. I am 69 and had to explain to
these two twentysomethings what a
Raspberry Pi was, and I am not sure
that I convinced them.
How disappointing it was from my
perspective to And that the younger
generation are not always as technically
savvy as we are led to believe.
Roger We(Jlake
10 15 -28 April 2015
chatting to a lovely man roughly the same
age as me. Those chats turned into a few
dates. Those dates turned into a ‘fine
romance’. And that romance finally
turned into a wedding. Despite using new
technology it all seemed very quaint and
old-fashioned. It proves you don’t have to
be a sex-mad youngster to find love online.
Dorothy O'Connor
More places should ban
'selfish' sticks
1 1 applaud the National Gallery for
I banning so-called selfie sticks
(News, Issue 446). A recent trip there was
ruined by some idiots who used these
sticks so carelessly it almost seemed like
they were jousting. I urge all galleries to
follow suit, or some priceless artworks
will be damaged. I can easily imagine a
sculpture losing a head by a recklessly
swung selfie stick. Also, can I propose a
name change? Surely they should be
called selfish sticks?
Terence Macpherson
Apple's 'gimmicky tests' are
no substiture for a doctor
I Apple’s ResearchKit seems like a
I waste of time to me (‘What’s All
the Fuss About?’, Issue 446). As a retired
GP, I doubt any serious data will result
from what seem like gimmicky tests. The
only way you can truly ascertain the
health of a patient is seeing them in the
flesh. If I’m unfortunate enough ever to
develop Parkinson’s, my first thought will
be to visit the doctor, not to download a
flipping app! And as for saying ‘Aaaaah’
into an iPhone, I’m much more likely to
say ‘Arggghhhh!’ when I see how
expensive they are.
Christopher Ball
Greenhouse heater
killed my Wi-Fi
1 1 had a similar problem to Stuart
I Andrews (The Final Straw, Issue
445) when my Wi-Fi stopped working.
After tearing out what little hair I had
left and reverting to an old router, I
finally took stock of things I’d recently
done in my house and I realised I’d
switched on a greenhouse tube heater.
Switching it off immediately fixed my
Wi-Fi. I launched a Wi-Fi-detector app
on my tablet and watched it while I
switched the heater on and off, and
noticed all the Wi-Fi spots disappear.
Long live Ethernet cables!
Roy Houghton
STAR LETTER
Slow broadband, £13k watches and
free iPads for MPs: April Fool's?
I thoroughly enjoyed
your little quiz in Issue
446 on tech hoaxes. You
managed to fool me - I
thought the Twitter marriage
service was real. It’s the sort of
ridiculous thing that seems to
happen online these days.
I’d like to pose a similar (if a
little late) April Fool’s quiz.
Can you guess which of these
three crazy stories are fake? First of all,
there’s the great broadband scandal of
2015. Despite living in busy urban
areas, there are lots of people in the UK
(me included) who can only get a
broadband speed of around 2Mbps (on
a good day). This is the same country
whose chancellor recently announced
plans to deliver 100Mbps to every
home. Could such a preposterous
situation possibly be true?
Secondly, Apple is now selling a fancy
watch for over £13,000, much more
than many people in the UK (me
included) have to live on a year. It’s
such a lot of money for a watch that
you may think this story couldn’t
possibly be true. My own watch cost a
mere £20 from Argos. Are Apple really
selling one for the cost of a VW Polo?
And third, all 650 MPs will soon
receive free iPads so they will find it
easier to fiddle their expenses and
write rubbish on Twitter. They are
getting this freebie despite being paid
more than twice the average UK wage,
and at a time when many of their
constituents (me included) are having
their benefits slashed. Surely this
can’t be true?
So, can you guess which ones are
fake? As indicated by my sarcastic
tone, none of them are false. They are
all true, and all demonstrate how
bonkers the world is getting. Thank god
for Computeractive for
keeping me sane!
Brian Dutton
The Star Letter writer wins a Computeractive mug!
It's hard not to abuse
phone scammers
Mr Ingrey (Letters, Issue 445) talks
rather disparagingly about “the
odd nuisance call”, saying the majority of
calls are from people we want to hear
from. I wish. I’m writing this at
Wednesday lunchtime, and since Monday
morning have received seven nuisance
calls (the earliest at 6.45am when I was
still asleep) and four from people I know.
I try hard not to abuse those making
these calls, but can understand why some
people do. Perhaps
Mr Ingrey should
count himself lucky
if he really only does
receive “the odd”
such call.
Brian Hudson
Online volunteers help to
lead the blind
Your reader Sylvia Nicholls, who
asked about the best software to
help her blind friend (‘What Should I
Buy?’, Issue 445, page 24), might find a
great new service called BeMyEyes.org
(http://bemyeyes.org) of use. Blind
iPhone users can download a simple app
that lets them connect via video to
sighted users, who can then describe
what they see, read text or help them
with whatever question they might have.
At the moment there are
10 sighted helpers for
every blind person, so
I’m sure Sylvia’s friend
could get assistance
really quickly.
Han Dunsterville
15 -28 April 2015 11
Consumeractive
I don't get promised
broadband speed -
can I get a refund?
I’ve been with Virgin Media for
over two years and was initially
told I eould get 20Mbps. But I
have never aehieved more than 9Mbps. I
reeently upgraded to 50Mbps, but still
ean’t get above 9Mbps. Virgin has said it’s
beeause of ongoing installation work, but
is still eharging me for the upgraded
speed. Can I get a refund?
Riyaz Mamdani
Riyaz is entitled to a refund
for the period since he upgraded
to 50Mbps, but he’ll have to
forget about getting any money back
for the time before. Filing a complaint
going back even a year is unlikely to
be successful because if you let a
situation rumble on for that long
without taking action, then legally
you are deemed to have accepted it.
The onus is always on the customer to
take action as soon as possible.
To get a refund for the period since
he upgraded to 50Mbps, Riyaz needs
to write to Virgin explaining that it has
sold him a service it can’t currently
fulfil and is therefore in breach of
contract. He should request a
refund for the extra money
he’s now paying for the
50Mbps service.
Are First Great Western's terms
and conditions unfair?
I paid £43 online for a train
tieket and was about to print
it using First Great Western’s
app, but I eouldn’t get the app to open.
Instead, I printed proof that I’d paid
for the tieket, and showed this to the
station staff on the day of my journey.
But they told me they eouldn’t aeeept
it beeause the terms and eonditions
showed that printing the tieket was my
responsibility. I had to pay £54 for
another tieket. Is this fair?
Judith Rowbotham
It doesn’t seem fair to us
because everyone suffers
technical problems from time
to time, and we’d have hoped First
Great Western (FGW) would’ve had
contingency plans to help passengers
in these situations. But although
FGW clearly states that printable
tickets are non-refundable, we think
Judith should try to get her money
back using the legal protection under
the Unfair Terms in Consumer
Contracts Regulations (UTCCRs),
which states that companies can’t
set unfair conditions.
First, Judith should write to FGW
stating why she believes the terms are
unfair, using this letter template from
Which?: www.snipca.com/15801. The
company may give her a refund, but if
not she could take her complaint to the
small claims court, because only a court
can decide what’s fair and what’s not.
If she doesn’t want to do this, she
could report FGW to her local Trading
Standards department. The best way to
do this is through the Advice Guide
website (www.adviceguide.org.uk),
run by Citizen’s Advice, which will
pass her complaint on to the relevant
office. Judith can also file a complaint
with the Competition and Markets
Authority (CMA), though she should
read its guidelines first: www.snipca.
com/15802. She should then file her
claim online at Gov.uk: www.snipca.
com/15812.
We’ve also contacted FGW
for more information so
we’ll update you with its
response in a later issue. Ic- —
Do I have to put up with repeated repairs?
I bought an HP Envy Laptop
from Currys on the 29
Deeember for £899. After three
months the motherboard developed a
fault. Currys only offered
to send it for repair. It
eame baek with the
same fault, so it’s been
sent for another repair.
Beeause it’s within six
months of purehase,
ean I demand a refund or
replaeement instead?
Chris Newbon
No, Chris can’t demand a refund
or replacement after one repair
within the first six months. But
he’s right to think that six months is a
legally important period of time.
Within six months, any fault is
considered “inherent”, which
means it has existed since the
product was made. The onus is on
the retailer or manufacturer to
prove this isn’t the
case. They are
legally allowed to
try to repair or refund
the product, even more than once. You
can only demand a replacement or a
refund if a repair isn’t feasible.
We feel that forcing people to put
up with repeated repairs is wrong, so it’s
good to know that the new Consumer
Rights Bill, due to become law this year,
will entitle customers to an automatic
replacement after only one failed
repair. We’ve contacted Currys to ask
them to make sure it speeds
up the repair, and takes
extra care to properly
fix the fault.
12 15 -28 April 2015
El Contact us so we can investigate your case
Email: consumeractive(®computeractive.co.uk
Write: Consumeractive, Computeractive, 30 Cleveland Street London W1T 4JD
^ Please include both your phone number and address.
Unfortunately, we can't reply to all your letters.
We stand up for your legal rights
Can you help us get a faulty PC fixed?
My mother-in-law
bought a Lenovo
IdeaCentre B540
eomputer in August 2013 from
PC World. It eost £749.99 and
hasn’t been used mueh. It
stopped working in January
2015, but PC World said it’s out of
warranty so we’d have to pay for
any inspeetion and repair. We
think PC World should have
done this without eharging us
beeause we believe the PC is ‘not
fit for purpose’. Can you help?
Kenni Rollins
Yes we can, but PC World is
legally correct to refuse to repair
it for free. This is because the PC
ideaoentre
j
....
was brought more than six months ago.
After six months, as we explain in Chris
Newbon’s case (see opposite page), the
onus is on the customer to prove a fault is
inherent, and not the result of
accidental damage or wear and
tear. Paying for an independent
inspection is usually the only
way to do this.
However, companies often
respond to our plea for a
goodwill gesture, so we’ll ask
Lenovo and PC World to inspect
the PC for free. If they won’t,
Kenni could consider paying
them to do so, but it would be
cheaper to get the PC examined
by a reputable local PC repair
shop. If this shows there’s an
inherent fault, PC World must
repair the computer free ^ — 7 ;
of charge, and pay for the \ \
cost of the inspection. \
CASE UPDATE
South Korean Amazon Marketplace
seller refunds HMRC charges
We've got some good news to report on
Hillary Duffy's complaint against HMRC, which
appeared in Issue 446. She was annoyed HMRC
was charging her £11.38 (20 per cent VAT plus a
handling fee) for a package of plastic food containers that had
been sent from South Korea by a company called Shopforyou.
Hillary wanted to dispute the fee because she didn't realise
Shopforyou was based in South Korea. Under HMRC rules,
you can only avoid paying VAT on goods being sent from
outside the EU if they cost less than £36 and are labelled as
gifts. Shopforyou did actually label the goods as a gift, but for
whatever reason HMRC still added VAT.
Hillary almost definitely wouldn't have been able to persuade
HMRC to drop the fee, but she did manage to get a refund for
£11.38 from Shopforyou after leaving scathing feedback on the
company's Amazon Marketplace account. Her main complaint
was that the company didn't make it clear it was based in South
Korea. After Hillary received the refund, she removed the
negative feedback as a goodwill gesture.
Her success shows the power of feedback in this internet
age, but also serves as a reminder
to always double-check the
location and legitimacy of sellers
on Amazon and eBay. Visit HMRC's
website to see what fees you may
be charged on imported goods:
www.snipca.com/15803.
THIS WILL COME IN USEFUL
Solid-state drive manufacturers
Corsair
Contact: https: //corsair.
secure.force.com
Facebook: www.facebook.
com/Corsair
Crucial
0800 013 0330
Contact:
www.snipca.com/15732
Facebook: www.facebook.
com/CrucialMemory
Twitter: ©CrucialMemory
Kingston
01932 738888
Email: customerservice@
kingston.eu
Facebook:
www.snipca.com/15733
ocz
01235 824900
Contact form:
WWW. snipca. com/15809
Twitter: @OCZStorage
Samsung
03307267864
Contact:
WWW. snipca. com/15752
Facebook: www.facebook.
com/SamsungUK
San Disk
0203 3183 965
Facebook: www.facebook.
com/SanDiskUK
Live chat:
www.snipca. com/15808
Seagate
08004732 4283
Contact form: http://
support2 . Seagate, com
Facebook:
WWW. snipca. com/15745
Toshiba
0871495 8944
Facebook: www.facebook.
com/toshibauk
Twitter @ToshibaUK
15 -28 April 2015 13
Protect Your Tech
Scams and threats to avoid, plus new security tools
WATCH OUT FOR...
'Activate your BT ID' scam emails
What happened?
We recently received a phishing email
purporting to be from BT that was one
of the most convincing scams we’ve
seen this year, it came from ebilling@
bt.com and bypassed our spam filter
using the subject line ‘Activate your BT
ID to see your account online’.
Headlined ‘important: You need to
verify your BT ID’, the email tries to
trick you into clicking a link to confirm
your account. The email says you should
do this so you can “go online to see your
bills, products and extras, including the
BT SmartTalk and BT Sport Apps”.
To the unsuspecting eye it looks
genuine. There are no spelling mistakes
or grammatical errors, and it asks you to
click www.bt.com/help if you have any
questions.
We could tell it was a spam simply by
hovering our cursor over any of the
links in the email. This shows you the
web address you’ll be sent to if you were
to click the link. In our case, that was
the dubious-sounding ‘http://susdungo.
Iv/engine/.all/’ (see screenshot right)
- the suffix ‘.Iv’ means the website is
based in Latvia.
Bear in mind, when the email arrived
in our inbox it contained BT logos and
other professional-looking images
where the red crosses are in our
screenshot. We took this screenshot
a day after, by which time the images
had disappeared, making it look far
less genuine.
What should you do?
If you receive this email, forward it to BT
at phishing (a)bt. com, then delete it. BT
has some great advice on its website
(www.snipca.com/15859) on how to
spot phishing scams. If you do
accidentally click one of the links in
the email, your browser should still
protect you. The most recent versions
of Firefox, Chrome and Internet
Explorer all warned us that the site
was malicious.
m^m A I M Kaspersky Phound for Android
wW www.snipca.com/15851
Two thoughts race
through your mind
when you lose your
phone or tablet.
First, where is it?
And second, is anyone
using it? Kaspersky’s
free Phound app for
Android (there’s no
iOS version planned)
answers both those
questions.
To use it, you need
to sign up to My
Kaspersky (https : //
center, kaspersky.
com), and then
log into it on your
computer (assuming you’ve lost your
device). If you think you’ve simply lost
it around the house, trigger the Alarm
feature and you’ll soon
hear where it’s hiding.
But if your device has
been stolen, you can
locate it using GPS,
then lock it to
abruptly end the
thief’s fun. You can
also make it display a
message asking to be
returned, complete
with a tearful sad face
(see screenshot).
It’s another great
product from
Kaspersky, winner of
our past four antivirus
tests (see reader offer
on page 68), though we don’t like the
‘ph’ in the name. What’s wrong with
the humble ‘f?
A Scam Watch
READERS WARN READERS
Fake Facebook friend request
1 got an email, purporting to be from
Facebook, saying my friend Paul had
indicated that I’m his friend. It asked
me to accept his request to be a
friend, and there were buttons for
‘Cancel’ and ‘Accept’. Paul is an
actual friend, but not a Facebook
friend, so 1 knew it was a scam.
Worryingly the email senders knew
my name. 1 clicked ‘Cancel’ and was
directed to a website for “login.
flipora.com”, which triggered a WOT
(Web of Trust) warning. 1 emailed
Paul, and he’d had a similar email
from a mutual friend. We chose not
to go further into the website.
Steve Hill
Warn your fellow readers about scams at
letters(pcomputera ctive.co.uk
14 15 -28 April 2015
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The Network fnnovat/on
Best Free Software
Brilliant new programs that won't cost you anything
ADWARE REMOVER
AdwCleaner 4.200
www.snipca.com/16022
What you need: Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8/8.1
Our favourite tool for getting rid of unwanted toolbars, browser
hijackers and other adware is now even better. The new version
of AdwCleaner doesn’t add loads of fancy functions; instead it’s
been updated to work faster and remove more junk.
We wouldn’t normally devote this page to a program that’s
only had performance updates. But we’re making an exception
for AdwCleaner because it’s one of the most useful tools on our
PC and we wanted to show you, click by click, how to use it.
As we mentioned in our Cover Feature in Issue 446
(‘Remove Hidden Malware’), AdwCleaner scans your PC’s
files, processes and browsers for evidence of adware and
malware, including toolbars and other PUPs (potentially
unwanted programs). It then lists the malicious files and lets
you delete them all with one click.
This new version is faster than its predecessor, especially in
the scanning stage, and uses more powerful technology to kill
infected processes. It can now detect infected preferences in
Chrome, making it more effective against browser hijackers
such as the horrendous Binkiland (www.snipca.com/16025).
AdwCleaner is a portable tool, so you don’t have to install it,
and you can copy its program file (‘adwcleaner_4.200.exe’) to
a USB stick for running on any PC. To run it, click the EXE file,
click Yes, and then click ‘1 agree’ to open the program window.
The downside of portable software is that it isn’t updated
automatically, so you’ll have to check for new versions. Only
use the link above to download AdwCleaner; don’t click any
pop-ups claiming to contain an update. Scammers have used
this trick to sneak a fake version of AdwCleaner on to PCs.
O - AdwCl^afWf - V42Q0 - Xplode - G4n^al Chang&log Team -
Tilt Tooli Help
1 OuArafltifte manner
El
■3|l/RduuCleoner
Adjen
Actions
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Type Key Value Data
H Key NkaM\SOn^AHC\CI*SMi\ClSID\{«CMyXCE-FejS-4eS^7-AA3S-CiW«irr3}W2|
a Kty HiaM\SO™ftHRCI«M*\lrt(erf4etV[i4(»ACOO-i10E-W8r8F7B-ee7D81F8SJJ4f
14 Kty HICl.M\Wf™AFlt\CI(««NTy^*i\{D3771AfF-40«)-4AU-B71J-^5a7ttCJA3Fi)
X
D Click the Scan button to
update AdwCleanefs
database (this takes about
two seconds, compared
with up to half a minute in
the previous version) and
begin scanning your PC.
B When the scan is finished,
click the tabs, such as
Registry and Internet
Explorer, to see the infected
files AdwCleaner found
there. Untick anything you're
sure is a false positive.
EL To see all the infected files
in one list, click Tools, then
'Quarantine manager'. Also,
click Logfile to open the list in
Notepad and save it for your
records.
Q Click Cleaning to remove
all the files discovered by
AdwCleaner, then restart
your PC to complete the
process. Run AdwCleaner
again to make sure
everything's been removed.
16 15 -28 April 2015
USB TOOL
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EBOOK EDITOR
Sigil
www.snipca.com/16026
What you need: Windows Vista, 7 or 8/8.1
Create your own illustrated EPUB ebook using this new
open-source program. Unlike most ebook-writing services,
such as Lulu (https://wwwlulu.com), Sigil uses a WYSIWYG
(‘what you see is what you get’) editor so you don’t have to write
or format any code. It’s easy to style your text and chapter
headings, create a clickable table of contents and insert photos
and illustrations, including your book’s cover.
To install Sigil, go to the GitHub link above and click ‘Sigil-
0.8. 5 -Windows-Setup.exe’ (or the link below it, if your PC is
64bit), then run the installer. There are no extras in the setup
wizard, but it will install Microsoft C++ (which is safe) if it’s not
already on your PC. Read more about Sigil on its developer’s
site: http://sigiI-ebook.com.
SYSTEM TOOL
Splat
www.snipca.com/16037
What you need: Windows 7 or 8/8.1
Splat (short for ‘Simple Program Launching and Termination’)
lets you open and close groups of programs and websites at
once, using keyboard shortcuts. Lor example, if you’re working
on a family tree project, create a Splat shortcut to open your
genealogy program. Excel and your research bookmarks in
Chrome, all with one click. Or if you’re about to run a memory-
intensive program such as your antivirus or video editor, you
could use a Splat shortcut to free up memory first by closing all
unnecessary processes. To download the portable program,
click the little orange ‘Splat.zip’ link halfway down the page.
ImageUSB
www.snipca.com/16024
What you need: Windows
XP, Vista, 7 or 8/8.1
The humble USB stick
may seem old-fashioned
compared with SSDs,
virtual machines and the
like, but it’s as useful as
ever - you can even use
one to install Windows
10. This new program lets you copy the contents of one USB
stick or drive to another (or several, provided you have enough
USB ports), and makes it easy to write a disk image to USB. To
get the portable program, scroll down the page and click the
grey ‘ImageUSB Lree download’ button, then extract the ZIP and
run the program file (‘imageUSB.exe’).
WHAT SHOULD I DOWNLOAD?
We tell you what software to use
Can I transfer photos to my
iPad without iTunes?
Can you suggest an alternative to the awful
iTunes 12? All I want to do is drag photos and
videos from my PC on to my iPad to show to
friends, but iTunes won’t let me. It’s the most unhelpful
program. What should I use instead?
Tony Pritchard
The best program is also an app: Photo Transfer App
(www.phototransferapp.com). Lor £2.49 it gives
you complete control over sending and receiving
photos and videos between all your devices via Wi-Pi. Once
you’ve paid for the iOS version (www.snipca.com/16033)
you’re then free to install it on Android (www.snipca.
com/16038) and your PC, as many times as you want.
It’s worth mentioning (because Apple doesn’t exactly
publicise it) that you can plug your iPad into your PC, just
as if it were an external hard drive. All you need is your
iPad’s USB cable. Plug the other end into your PC and you’ll
see a message on your iPad: ‘Trust This
Computer?’. Tap Trust, and your iPad
will appear as a device in Windows
(Pile) Explorer. Navigate to the
DCIM folder and drag or copy files
in and out of it. This is a more
rough-and-ready solution than
Photo Transfer App, but it’s ideal
for occasional transfers.
Do you need our advice on what software to use?
Just email us at lettersCpcomputeractive.co.uk
15 -28 April 2015 17
New products tested by our experts
Reviews
TABLET I £320 from www.snipca.com/15973
An Android tablet that lets you measure
things with its camera
Dell may be best known for its PCs and
laptops, but the company is also one of
the oldest manufacturers of Android
tablets. None of them, it has to be said,
have been particularly good. At first
glance, the Venue 8 7840 (also known as
the Venue 8 7000) seems to buck this
trend. It’s incredibly thin, has a super-
high-resolution screen and has a camera
that can measure objects and distances.
On closer inspection, however, the 7840
isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Size and weight
With a thickness of just 6mm, the 7840
is one of the thinnest tablets we’ve tested.
You might expect it to be quite flimsy,
but its metal casing feels incredibly
robust. It’s also impressively lightweight
at just 306g. The borders around three
sides of its screen are incredibly narrow,
and with so little purchase area for your
fingers it’s not always easy to hold. The
thin borders also means it’s far too easy
to inadvertently trigger an onscreen
control or cover up the rear camera
when trying to take a photo.
The bottom border (in portrait mode) is
wider, but this houses the front-facing
camera and speaker, so you have to be
careful not to cover these with your
fingers when having a video chat. The
placement of the front-facing camera
near the edge, rather than closer to the
In theory, you can measure the width of a door with the Venue's
three-lens camera
middle as on most tablets,
seems odd at first but it does
make it a little easier to get a
good view of your face in
video chats while still
maintaining eye contact
with the other caller.
Cameras
The most striking feature of
the 7840 is its rear-facing
camera. This has three lenses
which, using technology
developed by Intel, can
measure objects such as the
dimensions of a picture frame
or the width of a hallway.
You use Dell’s camera app
to take a photo, then its
photo app to indicate what yoi
want to measure by marking
the object with your finger.
That’s the theory. In practice
the measurements were often
off by around two inches or so
- in some cases by as much as
a whole foot. Despite the photc
app’s insistence that the
measurements would be more accurate
the more photos we took, this yawning
margin of error persisted throughout our
efforts, making this potentially useful
measuring feature no more than a
gimmick. It might help settle a pub
argument or two, but
it’ll be of little use
when planning some
weekend DIY. To be fair
to Intel and Dell, this
is a difficult trick to pull
off, given how even the
clearest photos can suffer
from subtle distortions
in perspective and
geometry, but they
should have held back
this technology and
perfected it rather than
releasing it in such a
Dell Venue 8 7840
flawed and under-developed state.
Another problematic feature that
uses the three-lens rear camera is the
ability to change the focus of your photos
after you’ve taken them, similar to the
trick of the Lytro camera (see our review.
Issue 404). However, much like other
Android devices that have attempted to
reproduce this focus-shifting ability
(namely the HTC One M8 and the
Samsung Galaxy S5 - see our reviews.
Issues 421 and 423 respectively), the
7840 ’s version of this feature is crude.
Within a photo, certain parts of a
building or a person, for example, will
randomly appear out of focus.
The rear cameras aren’t even good
enough for standard photography. Photos
are blighted by lots of noise and a
blue-ish cast, even when shooting in
broad daylight. It’s no match for a decent
18 15 -28 April 2015
smartphone camera, making it a
camera of last resort only.
Screen, responsiveness and
performance
It’s a shame this tablet’s camera isn’t
up to scratch, because photos look
gorgeous on the high-quality Sin
screen. While contrast leaves a little
to be desired, colour accuracy is
excellent and the screen is so
dazzlingly bright at its maximum
setting, you may need sunglasses.
Due to the screen’s very high
resolution (2560x1440 pixels), text is
razor sharp and images incredibly
detailed. Disappointingly, the
touchscreen often responded slowly
to our swipes and prods, which was
frustrating.
At least the performance of the
quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 processor
was up to scratch. It sped through
our 3D graphics and app-loading
benchmark tests. It only fell down in
our web page-loading test, where it
was slower than the very fastest
tablets such as the iPad Air 2 and the
Nexus 9 (see our reviews. Issues 437
and 438, respectively). But that means
it’s still faster than most Android tablets
i I Dell has neglected
screen responsiveness
and user-friendly
design, resulting in
a flawed tablet If
we’ve put through this test. We have no
complaints about its battery life though.
It lasted an impressive 14 and a half hours
when playing videos continuously.
Operating system and speakers
The 7840 comes with Android 4.4
KitKat pre-installed, with a free upgrade
to Android 5.0 Lollipop promised for
late April. Thankfully, Dell has resisted
the urge to tamper extensively with
the standard Android interface. Aside
from the inclusion of a few extra apps,
including the ones necessary to use
the camera’s measurement features,
the only major alteration is the
addition of an equaliser.
Accessed from the notifications drawer.
the equaliser greatly improves the
sound quality of the otherwise tinny
built-in speakers, increasing the clarity
of spoken dialogue in both videos and
audio (in podcasts and online radio
streams, for example). There’s only so
much the equaliser can do though,
and it can’t hide the speakers’ lack of
precision and bass sound. For the best
audio quality, particularly for music,
you’ll need a high-quality pair of
headphones or external speakers.
Conclusion
Despite its quality screen and long
battery life, the Dell Venue 8 7840
is a pretty average tablet overall. By
focusing on its slender construction
and gimmicky camera features, Dell
has neglected crucial aspects such as
screen responsiveness and user-friendly
design, resulting in a flawed and
inconsistent tablet. At this price, we’d
much rather have the Sony Xperia Z3
Tablet Compact or the iPad Mini 2
(see our reviews. Issues 440 and 416
respectively), which are far better
mini tablets.
SPECIFICATIONS
8.4in 2560x1600-pixel touchscreen •2.3GHz
Intel Atom Z3580 quad-core processor •2GB
memory • 16GB storage • Android 4.4 KitKat • 306g •
216x124x6mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty
www.snipca.com/15973
HOW WE TEST
Computeractive is owned by Dennis
Publishing, which owns a hi-tech facility
for testing the latest technology. You'll
often read references to our benchmark
testing, which is a method of assessing
products using the same criteria. For
example, we test the speed of every
PC and the battery life of every tablet
in exactly the same way. This makes
our reviews authoritative, rigorous
and accurate.
Dennis Publishing also owns the
magazines PC Pro, Computer Shopper,
Web User, Micro Mo/tand MacUser,
and the website Expert Reviews
(www.expertreviews.co.uk). This
means we can test thousands of
products before choosing the most
relevant for Computeractive.
FAIR AND IMPARTIAL
Our writers follow strict guidelines to
ensure the reviews are fair and
impartial. The manufacturer has no
involvement in our tests.
OUR AWARDS
We award every product
that gets five stars our
Buy It! stamp of approval.
It means we were
extremely impressed by the product,
and we think you will be too.
Every product that gets a
four-star review is given
the Great Pick award. We
highly recommend these
products, although they just fail to meet
the high standard of our Buy It! winners.
PRICES
Our reviews contain a link to the best
price we found online at the time of press.
iBUYirn
VERDICT: A gimmicky camera and
some bad design choices hobble what
could've been an excellent tablet
ALTERNATIVE: Sony Xperia Z3
Tablet Compact £300 Smoother
responsiveness
and a waterproof
design make this
Sin Android tablet
better value
15 -28 April 2015 19
Reviews
SMARTPHONE I £500 (without contract) from www.snipca.com/15907
LG G Flex 2
The curved Android phone that can repair itself
In Issue 446 we reviewed Samsung’s
Galaxy Note Edge, an Android phone
with a screen that curved over the
phone’s right-hand edge. LG’s G Flex 2
has an even more pronounced curve - a
concave design (see image right) that
makes it stand out from the crowd. That’s
not the phone’s only futuristic feature -
its rear casing can repair itself thanks to
its clever chemical composition.
LG claims the curved contours make
the phone feel more comfortable when
pressed up against your face while you
make a call, and even when it’s stored
away in your pocket, pressed against your
body. We aren’t convinced by these
claims - any increase in comfort levels is
negligible. The curve is also supposed to
make the large 5. Sin screen easier to use
with one hand, but it’s just as unwieldy
as screens on other phone of this size.
The curved screen’s only plausible
benefit is that it would be less likely to
crack if dropped on the floor, given that
The futuristic
curved screen is
unwieldy and of little
practical benefit If
most of the screen would avoid contact
with the ground. We didn’t risk putting
our theory to the test, but we did have
the opportunity to test the self-repairing
rear casing when an over-excitable
child put a gash in it using a set of house
keys. A few minor scratches healed
within a few hours and the faint scuff
marks left behind could only be seen
when held up to the light. A more serious
gouge healed in a couple of days.
Although this did leave visible scratch
marks behind, the recovery was
SPECIFICATIONS
5.5in 1920x1080-pixel touchscreen • 1.56GHz
Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 eight-core processor
• Adreno 430 graphics chip • 2GB memory • 16GB
storage • 4G • Micro SIM • Android 5.0 Lollipop • 152g •
149x75x9mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty
www.snipca.com/15908
nonetheless very impressive.
The image quality of the screen is
excellent. It’s very bright with spot-on
colour accuracy and great contrast,
while text is razor sharp, thanks to its
1080p resolution. Responsiveness was
somewhat disappointing though
(which surprised us given the screen’s
other attributes), with the touchscreen
sometimes struggling to keep up with
our finger prods and swipes.
Unlike some older Samsung phones
which claimed to have eight-core
processors (even though only four
of those eight cores could be used at
any one time), the Snapdragon 810
processor here has true eight-core
credentials and is one of the fastest
mobile processors we’ve ever seen.
The phone did get warm when
running very demanding apps
though, but it never became
uncomfortable.
Battery life was nothing special.
When connected to Vodafone’s 3G
network in central London and used
for calls, taking photos, web browsing
and GPS, the battery lasted 26 hours
15 minutes. When playing videos
continuously, it only managed 11 hours
11 minutes. Call quality was generally
very good though. While callers did
tend to sound hushed and distant to
our ears, we came across loud and clear
to them with background noises
successfully filtered out.
Although not flawless, the camera is
better than those on many other Android
phones of a similar price. Outdoor shots
in bright daylight were sharp and
detailed. The only flaw here were skies
that were often oversaturated and looked
unrealistic. Photos taken in low light
were sufficiently illuminated with noise
kept to a minimum, although the focus
was a tad too soft.
The G Flex 2 is one of the first phones
to come with Android 5.0 Lollipop, but
LG has let itself down with some of the
changes it has made to the interface. A
large widget for tracking health data
occupies one home screen and can’t be
removed, while a nagging dialogue box
pops up to tell you the phone is using
09:00
3G/4G every time you wander out of
Wi-Fi range. Lollipop’s handy new ‘do not
disturb’ features are now buried deep in
the settings app, making them a real
hassle to reach.
The G Flex 2 is a real mixed bag. The
futuristic curved screen is of little practical
benefit, while for every well implemented
feature there’s another half-baked one.
We hope the best ones will make it to
LG’s other phones. For now though, even
if you’re willing to spend this much,
you’re better off waiting for rival Android
phones from Samsung and HTC.
VERDICT: A mixed bag of gimmicks and
genuinely useful features make this
phone only fair value
★★★☆☆
ALTERNATIVE: Apple
iPhone 6 Plus £619 A
more expensive phablet,
but with a superior camera
ancJ almost flawless
responsiveness
20 15 -28 April 2015
CAMERA I £249 from www.snipca.com/15875
Sony QXl
Upgrade your smartphone's
camera with this odd add-on
The Sony QXl is one of the oddest
cameras we’ve ever seen. Sony calls it a
Tens-style’ camera, because it lacks a
screen and eyepiece. The idea is that you
connect it wirelessly to your smartphone,
then use your phone’s screen to take
and view photos. This means the QXl
is significantly smaller than your
average camera, which lets you be
more creative with your shots because
you can place it in more unusual
places and control it remotely.
Sony also markets the QXl as an
‘upgrade’ for your smartphone’s camera
because you can clamp it to the back of
your phone (you might also just hold it or
mount it on a standard tripod). It uses the
same 20.1 -megapixel sensor and image
processor as Sony’s brilliant Alpha A5000
camera (see our review. Issue 428). This
is pretty impressive, given the A5000
produces far superior image quality than
any other smartphone. Much like with
the A5000, you can use a variety of lenses
with the QXl (as long as they use Sony’s
E Mount fitting), which makes it more
versatile than a standard smartphone
camera. Bizarrely Sony doesn’t include
a lens with the QXl. A basic zoom lens
costs a whopping £259, which more
than doubles the price.
C t It's great fun, with
superb image quality,
but far too expensive f f
Every time you use the QXl you have
to pair it with your Android or iOS
smartphone over Wi-Ei using the free
PlayMemories app. If your Android
phone supports NEC, then you can
simply tap it against the QXl. iPhone
owners will have to connect via the app,
but it’s a quick process either way -
we connected it to our Samsung Galaxy
S5 in around three seconds.
Once it’s paired, you use the app to
take and view photos as well as change
settings. Photos are saved directly to the
microSD card inside the camera and can
also be automatically backed up to your
smartphone. Advanced settings control
shutter speed, aperture size, ISO and
white balance. You also have the option of
shooting in RAW format instead of JPEG.
Taking pictures when paired via
Wi-Ei was very smooth in our tests,
with only a slight delay between pressing
the onscreen shutter button on our
phone and the camera capturing an
image. The live preview (showing what
the camera is viewing) suffered from
only negligible delay. If you aren’t
shooting remotely, you just use the
physical shutter and zoom controls
on the camera itself for quick results.
The QXl’s battery survived a whole
day of shooting, more than could be
said for our phone’s battery. While you
can of course take photos with just the
QXl, this is hardly ideal.
When used with Sony’s basic zoom
lens, image quality was unsurprisingly on
a par with that of the A5000, and streets
ahead of any smartphone. Colours were
vibrant yet balanced, while autofocus was
reliable and fast. The big SLR-style sensor
SPECIFICATIONS
20.1-megapixel sensor* Accepts microSD and
Memory Stick Micro storage cards • 158g •
70x74x53mm (HxWxD) • Requires Android or iOS
device • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/15874
kept noise to a minimum, so skin tones
and other subtle textures were captured
accurately, while shots in low light were
respectable. Using an alternative lens
with a wider aperture let us capture
images in the sort of dark conditions
that would defeat any smartphone or
compact camera.
We had great fun shooting with the
QXl, but it’s just far too expensive. When
bought with a basic zoom lens, it costs
almost twice as much as an A5000 with
the same lens. It might be worth your
while if you already own a Sony CSC,
and therefore already own a collection
of Sony E Mount lenses, but most recent
Sony CSCs have the same remote-
shooting feature as the QXl, albeit in a
bulkier package. All of this makes the
QXl something of a luxury, for wealthy
photography enthusiasts only.
VERDICT: Superb image quality and
flexible shooting, but it's too expensive
ALTERNATIVE: Sony
A5000 £259 Essentially
the same camera in a
bulkier design but at half
the cost of the QXl when
bought with the same lens
15 -28 April 2015 21
Reviews
LAPTOP I £650 from www.snipca.com/15974
Asus ZenBook UX305
Long battery life and a thin, lightweight
casing at a surprisingly reasonable price
The best ultra-portable laptops tend to be
expensive - slender lightweight casings,
large long-lasting batteries and power-
efficient components don’t come
cheap. This makes the relatively
low price and high quality of the
Asus ZenBook UX305 all the
more surprising.
The UX305 is remarkably thin
with its metal casing only just thick
enough to accommodate its three
USB 3.0 ports. Despite how slender and
leightweight (1.2kg) it is, its metal build
is robust with only a little flexing in its
base and lid. Its mauve design is attractive
too, as is the circular pattern etched
into the lid.
We were worried that such a thin
casing would mean a less comfortable
keyboard (thin casings tend to leave less
room for the key mechanisms, resulting
in less travel). But it still had enough, and
combined with plenty of feedback, it
made for fast, error-free typing. The keys
I fit has the battery
life, build and screen
quality normally
found in a laptop
twice the price
aren’t backlit for typing in low-lit
conditions, but that’s a minor quibble.
The touchpad is large and accurate, even
though some of the gestures, such as
scrolling by swiping two fingers up or
down, feel a little juddery and imprecise.
There’s no touchscreen, but we’ve
never been fans of this feature on laptops.
While the screen is a little grainy, it does
have an anti-glare finish that keeps
overhead light reflections to a minimum.
Both contrast and colour accuracy are
good, while the viewing angles are wide.
Thanks to the generous 1920xl080-pixel
resolution, text looks sharp, if a little
on the small side. A small tweak of
Windows’ display settings helps to
compensate for this.
The UX305 is completely silent
because it uses one of Intel’s new Core
M processors, which doesn’t need a
cooling fan. Despite this, the underside of
the laptop never became uncomfortably
warm - even when we ran our most
strenuous benchmark tests, designed to
really stretch the processor. Its energy-
efficient design helped the UX305 achieve
an impressive 12 hours of battery life in
our light-usage test - a significant
achievement given the battery is smaller
than those found in many rival laptops.
The downside is that the Core M
processor is noticeably slower than
fourth- or fifth-generation Intel Core i5
and i7 processors. While it’s on a par
when it comes to image editing, it’s
around 50 per cent slower when editing
video, and about a third as fast when
running multiple programs at the
same time. It’s more than fast enough
for more mundane tasks though.
Starting up and waking from sleep are
almost instantaneous, thanks to the
128GB SSD. You can’t buy it with a bigger
SSD though. And while it’s possible to
upgrade the SSD yourself, disassembling
SPECIFICATIONS
800MHz Intel Core M 5Y10 dual-core processor*
8GB memory • 128GB SSD • Intel HD 5300 integrated
graphics • 13.3in 1920x1080-pixel screen • 802.11ac/
a/b/g/n - Windows 8.1 •1.2kg (1.4kg with charger)
• 12x324x226mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty
www.snipca.com/15975
this laptop means dealing with lots of
tiny, fiddly screws. Another thing to
remember is that the SSD is an M.2 type,
which cost more per gigab 5 fie than a
SATA model. If you have lots of files
then you’ll probably have to rely on
external or online storage.
The Asus ZenBook UX305 is a
remarkably good-value laptop with the
battery life, build and screen quality
normally found in a laptop twice the
price. The only downside is the so-so
performance. If you want an ultra-
portable laptop that’s powerful enough
for use as your main computer, then the
Asus ZenBook UX303LA is a better buy
(see our review. Issue 442). Although
thicker and a tad heavier, it’s far faster
with a comparable battery life. Still,
if you frequently work on the go and
value portability above all else, then
the UX305 is ideal.
VERDICT: This almost flawless ultra-
portable laptop is superb value
★★★★★
ALTERNATIVE: Asus ZenBook
UX303LAE695
Thicker, a little noisier
and 200g heavier,
but with much faster
performance and
comparable
battery life
22 15 -28 April 2015
LAPTOP I £180 from www.snipca.com/15929
HP Stream 11
A cheap and colourful laptop, but far from cheerful
The best...
Accessories
HP’s Stream 11 stands out from
the crowd with its flamboyant
bright purple casing. The wrist rest
has a subtle polka-dot pattern,
which gets lighter from top to
bottom. This isn’t as distracting as
it sounds and the whole thing is
sturdily made.
At just £180, the Stream 11 is
incredibly cheap for a Windows
8.1 laptop. Despite its bargain
price, it’s light (1.3kg) and its
battery survived an impressive
10 and a half hours in our
light-usage test. This is a
great return for such a
low-cost laptop and is due in large
part to its energy-efficient Intel
Celeron N2840 processor.
While it conserves battery life, the
performance of this processor was
disappointing. It’s too slow for
demanding tasks like editing photos and
videos. We could live with that, if it didn’t
also struggle with more everyday tasks
such as web browsing and office work.
When we opened several browser tabs or
programs simultaneously the laptop’s
responsiveness came to a virtual
standstill. While the slow processor is
partly to blame, the measly 2GB of
memory doesn’t help and just isn’t
sufficient for a Windows computer.
Among the extras is a Microsoft Office
365 subscription (free for one year).
You’ll probably need to rely on USB or
online storage though, because almost
half the 32GB SSD is already occupied
out of the box. You get 1TB of OneDrive
storage free for a year and 25GB of
Dropbox storage free for six months.
The keyboard feels a tad spongy, but it’s
comfortable to type on, with large keys
that provide enough feedback and travel.
The touchpad is more flawed. Although
spacious, it wasn’t particularly accurate
and sometimes struggled to distinguish
between a button tap and a movement
of the cursor.
The screen looks washed out with
poor contrast and tight viewing angles.
It’s reasonably bright, but we’ve tested
other budget laptops with more vibrant
screens. At 11.6in, the screen is relatively
small and the 1366x768 resolution can
make text hard to read if your eyesight
is less than perfect.
The Stream 11 - and other similar
computers such as Toshiba’s Satellite
CLIO (see our review. Issue 439) -
is an attempt by Microsoft to take on
Chromebooks by cramming Windows
into the cheapest laptops possible.
Unfortunately, the hardware just isn’t
up to it. If you want a light laptop for
around £200, you should opt for the
Asus Chromebook C200 (see our review.
Issue 432). If you want a cheap Windows
laptop, then you’ll have to settle for the
heavier and slightly more expensive
Asus X555L (see Buy It! page 30).
VERDICT: You'll need the patience of a
saint when using this slow laptop
Lindy Im USB-to-MicroB/
Lightning Combo Cable
£20 from www.snipca.
com/15993
A handy micro
USB cable that
has a tethered
Lightning adapter, so it can
charge both Apple and
non-Apple mobile devices.
Motorola Moto Hint
£74 from www.
snipca.com/15994
An impressively
small Bluetooth
headset for
smartphones that also
works with personal
assistants such as Siri
and Google Now. A lipstick-
sized USB charging cradle is
included.
Native Union Night Cable
£34 from www.snipca.com/15995
A 3m cable for charging your
smartphone or tablet that has a large
weighted knot in it to prevent your
device from sliding off your desk and
falling into hard-to-reach nooks and
crannies. It comes in Lightning and
micro USB versions.
SPECIFICATIONS
2.16GHz Intel Celeron N2840 dual-core processor*
2GB memory • 32GB SSD • Intel integrated graphics
• 11.6in 1366x768-pixel screen • 802.11b/g/n
• Windows 8.1 •1.3kg (1.6kg with charger) •
20x300x206mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty
www.snipca.com/15930
ALTERNATIVE: Asus Chromebook
C200 £200 A far superior budget
ultra-portable
laptop, as long
as you're happy
to use Chrome
OS instead of
Windows
Maplin 1.5m Six Socket
UFO Extension Cable
£13 from www.
snipca.com/15996
A compact,
space-saving
gangplug with six
plug sockets.
15 -28 April 2015 23
Reviews
PRINTER I £227 from www.snipca.com/16007
HP Colour LaserJet Pro M277
A small and well-designed colour
printer that also scans, makes
copies and sends faxes
HP’s Color LaserJet Pro MFP M277dw is a
multi-function colour laser printer (MFP).
Its basic functions include sending and
receiving faxes, and making colour prints,
scans or photocopies, but that’s just the
start of things. Connect it to your network
using either an Ethernet cable or the
built-in Wi-Fi adapter, and you can share
it with everyone at home. As expected for
a modern MFP, it also supports a wide
range of additional features, all of which
are controlled using a colour touchscreen.
The M277dw isn’t as big as you would
expect for a laser printer and it has an
impressively unfussy casing. The
off-white plastic is broken up with the
minimum of vents and flaps, and the use
of a touchscreen means that the only
physical button is the power switch.
At more than 15 kilograms it’s deceptively
heavy, though - we’d recommend
getting help to lift it.
tt The touchscreen
is excellent - it's like
using a smartphone
At the base is the paper-input tray
which is easy to pull out and load. It’s
good for only 150 sheets, though; some
rival MFPs manage 250 or more. Above
this is a bypass slot for a single page of
one-off media, such as an envelope or
headed paper. Printed pages come to rest
on top of the printer, above which is the
scanner and its 50-sheet automatic
document feeder (ADF). Using this, you
can make unattended photocopies or
scans of long multi-page documents.
The touchscreen is excellent. While it
isn’t that large, it has clear icons and
responds quickly to taps and gestures
SPECIFICATIONS
600x600dpi maximum print resolution • 18ppm
colour and mono quoted speeds • 1200x1200dpi
maximum scan resolution • USB2 • Gigabit Ethernet •
Wi-Fi • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/16008
- it’s like using a simplified smartphone.
From here you can control basic tasks
such as faxes or copies, but there are
more advanced options, such as printing
a file stored on a USB stick or saving a
scan to one. The USB port itself is located
just underneath the touchscreen.
There are multiple ways of printing
from iOS and Android devices. You can
use Apple’s AirPrint or HP’s ePrint - the
latter lets you simply email the files you
want to print to the printer itself. There’s
also support for Google Cloud Print,
which lets you print documents from a
Chromebook or indeed any computer
connected to the internet. Of course, you
needn’t bother with any of this if you
don’t own any of these devices; there’s
conventional Windows software too.
Tested with our PC, the M277dw
printed five pages of black text in 27
seconds, and took the same time to print
five pages of business graphics. While
that’s some way off the claimed rate of
18 pages per minute (ppm), it began to
approach this on longer jobs, reaching
14.5ppm over 20 pages. Photocopies
weren’t sluggish either, with a single
black copy needing only 14 seconds,
while a 10 -page copy completed in just
45 seconds - it was barely any slower in
colour. Scans were also fast: it took us
just 12 seconds to capture an A4
document at 300 dots per inch (dpi):
a middling amount of detail.
Scan quality was more than good
enough for archiving documents and
other office work, while black prints
and copies were excellent. We were
disappointed, however, with the
accuracy of colours in photocopies and
prints. The former were a little dark
and dingy, while the latter tended to
have a bluish tint.
This MFP takes four separate colour
toner cartridges which are available
in both standard and high-capacity
varieties. It’s cheaper to use the latter,
resulting in a cost of 9.2p per page of
mixed text and colour graphics, while
printing just black text costs 2p per page.
That’s not unreasonable for a laser MFP
at this price, but a comparable inkjet MFP
would cost less to buy and run. Despite
some strengths, then, the Color LaserJet
Pro MFP M277 is only fair value.
VERDICT: This MFP has plenty of easy-
to-use features, but we're disappointed
by its colour prints and copies, and we
wish it was cheaper to run
★★★★☆
ALTERNATIVE: Epson WorkForce Pro
WF-5620DWF £218
An inkjet MFP with
lower running costs
and better print and
scan quality
24 15 -28 April 2015
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Reviews
PRINTER I £135 from www.snipca.com/15869
Canon Maxify MB5050
An attractive MFP for small and home offices
Canon markets the Maxify MB5050 as a
small office MFP and in theory, it’s
superior to most inkjet printers aimed at
the home. It can achieve print speeds of
23 pages per minute (ppm) in black and
ISppm colour and it has an Ethernet port
in addition to USB and Wi-Fi. Plus, this
model accepts high-capacity ink cartridges,
which should mean lower running costs.
The MB5050 is striking for a printer
with a front panel that looks like brushed
metal, despite being made from plastic.
At the top, the 50 -page automatic
document feeder (ADF) folds shut when
not in use. The hinges of the scanner lid
extend so that it can accommodate bulky
material such as magazines. Unlike on
Canon’s more expensive Maxify models,
the ADF here can’t scan both sides of a
document automatically, but the printer
does support duplex printing. Sitting
below the output tray is a reasonably
high-capacity 250-sheet paper input
tray, but there’s no special feed for items
other than standard paper, such as
envelopes and card stock.
There’s a colour touchscreen which you
can use to access files stored on online
SPECIFICATIONS
1200x600dpi maximum print resolution •23ppm
colour and 15ppm mono quoted speeds • 1200x
1200dpi maximum scan resolution • Ethernet • USB •
Wi-Fi • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/15870
storage services,
such as Dropbox,
and print them
without using your
computer. It’s
unlikely you’ll want
to do this often,
though, because the
touchscreen is very
small and didn’t
respond well to our 1
presses. You can print from your tablet
or smartphone using Apple AirPrint
and Google Cloud Print.
In certain areas, the MB5050 performs
brilliantly. It’s an extremely quick mono
printer, delivering 25 pages of text at
21.4ppm, and a single mono photocopy
in just eight seconds. Copying 10 pages
took only 48 seconds. Scans are fast at
low-to-middling resolutions, with a
300 dots-per-inch (dpi) A4 capture
taking just 14 seconds, but a 1,200dpi
photo scan took a less impressive 68
seconds. It printed colour pages quickly,
with our 24-page graphics test arriving
at 6.3ppm. It took a lengthy four minutes
to duplex print 10 colour sides on five
pages, however.
Scan quality was of a very high
standard, while mono prints and copies
were also very good. We were a little
disappointed with colour prints and
copies on plain paper, however. Colours
seemed drab, especially when compared
to those from rival printers. Print costs
are very attractive, though, at about
4. Ip for a page of mixed text and colour
graphics, and just 0.9p for a page of text.
The MB5050 is a very good MFP,
especially in terms of costs. Epson’s
WorkForce Pro WF-5620DWF is more
impressive, but it costs almost £100 more.
VERDICT: Canon's Maxify MB5050 is a
great MFP with a few colour flaws
ALTERNATIVE: Epson WorkForce
Pro WF-5620DWF £218 Dearer but
faster colour-print speeds,
speedier colour scanning,
better colour-print quality
and cheaper colour costs
WHAT SHOULD I BUY? We solve your buying dilemmas
What's the best keyboard and mouse for RSI?
I’ve developed rather painful
RSI after years of bad posture
and other sloppy computer-
usage habits. I’m now looking to replace
the generic keyboard and mouse that
came with my PC with more healthy
alternatives. What would you suggest?
Emilie Bertrand
There are lots of ergonomic
keyboards and mice available
and which ones will suit you
depend on the severity of your
condition and your needs. We’d start
with the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic
Keyboard (£49 from www.snipca.
com/16011). Its design is supposed to
ensure your arms and hands are in a
more natural position when typing - one
of our RSI-afilicted writers swears by it.
We’d suggest skipping a mouse in
favour of a trackball. You only move the
ball only using your fingers, instead of
moving an entire mouse with your hand.
It won’t suit everyone, but another of our
writers won’t be parted from his
Kensington
Orbit Laser Trackball (£25 from
WWW. snipca.com/16 012) .
Finally, it may be worth trying
voice-recognition software instead
of a keyboard and mouse to type and
control your PC. Nuance Dragon
NaturallySpeaking 13 Home is the
best available (£80 from www.snipca.
com/16013).
Do you need advice on what you should buy?
Email us at lettersCpcomputeractive.co.uk
26 15 -28 April 2015
GAME I £23 from www.snipca.com/15991
Cities: Skylines
The city-building game
better than SimCity
City-building games are great fun and
have been around for decades, but the
genre is difhcult to get right. The latest
SimCity (see our review, Issue 397), for
example, may have beautiful graphics,
but gameplay is over-simplified and
unbalanced, and playing it requires a
constant internet connection. However,
Cities: Skylines gets it right.
The game revolves around keeping the
citizens of your city happy, employed and
spending money. Keep them content by
providing them with schools, parks,
hospitals, police stations and other
services and amenities. Key to this game
are zones - residential, commercial,
industrial and offices - which you place
wherever you see fit. If there’s sufficient
demand for new buildings, these zones
automatically fill up with houses, fiats,
offices, shops and industrial estates that
your citizens will flock to for work and
tt Cities: Skylines is
the city-building game
we've been clamouring
for and beats the
2013 SimCity Jf
leisure. While planning these areas is
up to you, the actual construction and
management of these buildings is
handled by the game, so your main
responsibility is balancing the budget
and smoothing out any problems.
You unlock more types of building,
transportation options and services as
your city’s population grows. You can
buy more land to expand your city’s
borders - assuming you have also
increased your finances - to
accommodate your booming population.
Thanks to the wonderfully detailed
graphics, zooming into your city and
watching a neighbourhood going about
its business has a bewitching charm
similar to that of a model railway.
Each zone is divided into districts. To
appease the citizens of each, you can
choose specific policies, such as lower
taxes, a ban on pets and free smoke
detectors. You can also change a district’s
economic speciality, effectively creating
towns dedicated to, for example, ore
mining, oil drilling, logging or farming.
Get the right mix and you’ll boost both
your finances and the happiness of your
citizens. Plus, this also allows for
enormous creative freedom, letting you
effectively create multiple towns within
one map, each with different specialities
and residents, but all connected by your
roads and public transport systems.
Your city’s roads will become
gridlocked if you fail to plan ahead,
especially as traffic behaviour, while
intriguing, is unrealistic and flawed,
sometimes resulting in tricky-to-solve
congestion. As the traffic piles up your
ambulances can’t make it to their
patients, fire trucks can’t get to
emergencies and the bin men can’t
pick up the rubbish. Everything
quickly starts to fall apart.
Although traffic behaviour is bizarre,
troubleshooting your tailbacks is great
fun. Going from a three-mile jam to
free-flowing traffic with some road
tweaking and public transport is very
rewarding. It can be overwhelming at
first: if you’re struggling, tutorials made
by other players (such as the one at
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Windows XP or later •3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
processor or faster • 4GB of memory • Nvidia
GeForce GTX 260 or AMD Radeon HD 5670
graphics card or faster •4GB of available hard-drive
space www.snipca.com/15991
www.snipca.com/15992) are great
starting points.
Despite this, the game can become a
little too easy. There’s no equivalent to the
disasters in the SimCity games, such as
tornadoes and earthquakes, which keep
you on your toes.
There are other irritations: you can’t
build tunnels, although the game’s
developers say they’re working on it.
There’s also an annoying Twitter-like
news feed that displays messages from
your citizens, which quickly become
repetitive and lack the charm and humour
of similar feeds in older SimCity games.
Despite these quibbles. Cities: Skylines
is the city-building game we’ve been
clamouring after for a decade, and it
beats the 2013 SimCity hands down
thanks to more in-depth gameplay, bigger
cities and better transport management.
If you ever get bored, more than 10,000
player-made add-ons are now available,
adding even more depth to the game.
Whether you’re a wannabe mayor or just
want to while away a rainy day. Cities:
Skylines is great fun.
VERDICT: Not a perfect city builder, but
hugely addictive and beautiful
★★★★☆
ALTERNATIVE:
SimCity 4 Deluxe
Edition £10 The best
SimCity game ever
made now available at a bargain price.
There are loads of player-made add-
ons and it has less demanding system
requirements, so it'll run on very old PCs
15 -28 April 2015 27
Reviews
CAMERA I £649 from www.snipca.com/15911
Panasonic
Lumix GM5
A tiny camera with
interchangeable lenses
The Panasonic Lumix GM5 is one of
those rare cameras that have
interchangeable lenses, but still fit into
your pocket or small handbag. It’s a
great selling point for anyone attracted
to the benefits of a CSC, but still find
them too big. It’s an update to the
Lumix CMl (see our review. Issue 413)
and while it adds new features, its
weight has only nudged up by 5g.
The most significant addition is the
eyepiece. This comes into its own when
shooting in direct sunlight and the
reflections on the screen can make life
difficult. Holding the camera up against
your eye can also help to avoid camera
shake. The image it shows is a tad small
and not very bright, but we’re still happy
it A great camera,
if a little overpriced,
given the modest
improvements 99
to have it. It’s a shame the screen isn’t
hinged, which would provide even
greater flexibility when shooting.
The Sin screen now has a widescreen
aspect ratio. That means your videos will
display without any black bars, though
they will be present when viewing
photos shot in the standard 4:3 aspect
ratio. It’s also a touchscreen, as before,
making it very easy to change focus.
The buttons and dials have been
reorganised, with a new command
dial that you push in to switch
between various exposure controls.
This is handy, even if it is a little stiff
for our liking. Alongside the command
dial are two buttons that can be
customised to perform 46 functions. By
default, one switches your view between
the screen and the eyepiece, while the
other button launches the wireless-
related features, such as backing up
photos to your smartphone.
Another major change is that the
flash is now a detachable unit. You’ll
have to be careful you don’t lose it,
but its detachability does give you
more flexibility. It uses a standard
hotshoe fitting, which lets you use
larger flashguns, although there seems
little point with such a compact camera.
The ability to attach a trigger for a
wireless flash is useful though.
As with the CMl, it’s amazing how few
compromises Panasonic has made in its
quest for miniaturisation. The bundled
lens has a respectable 3x zoom and
retracts when not in use, so that it juts
out just 29mm from the body of the
camera. It’s comfortable to hold for such
a slender device, but we’d still have
preferred a built-in grip (an optional,
very expensive add-on handgrip is
available for £90 from www.snipca.
com/15914). The battery life (around 210
shots) is one casualty of the war on size.
Performance is up to scratch. It took
just one second to power up and take a
photo, and half a second between shots in
normal use. Autofocus is consistently
quick, and no corners have been cut in
video and photo quality. The quality of
video in particular was impressive, with
remarkably crisp, smooth details. Colour
SPECIFICATIONS
16-megapixel sensor -Sx zoom (12-32mm) •
eyepiece • Sin screen • Accepts SD, SDHC, SDXC
storage cards • Compatible with Micro Four Thirds
lenses • 346g • 60x99x60mm (HxWxD) •
One-year warranty www.snipca.com/15913
accuracy was likevyise excellent, while
noise levels were satisfyingly low.
In photos, the finer details were
incredibly sharp - even at the maximum
3x zoom of the included lens. Subtle
textures were reproduced faithfully
with only the merest hint of noise. As
usual, switching from JPEC to RAW file
format gave the best results. Skin tones
were smooth and natural, while tricky
lighting conditions were handled well.
Noise levels were a little high though
compared with photos taken by Sony
CSCs that have larger sensors.
The Lumix GM5 is a great camera,
but it’s a little overpriced given the
modest nature of its improvements over
the CMl. That earlier model (with the
same lens) is still available for £429
(fromwww.snipca.com/15915). If its
pocket-sized dimensions don’t float your
boat, then a slightly bigger CSC, such as
Sony’s Alpha A5000, would be even
better value.
VERDICT: If s charmingly small and
has great image quality, but unless you
believe less is more, there are better-
value alternatives
★★★★☆
ALTERNATIVE: Sony A5000 £259
A smaller selection of compatible
lenses and a little
bulkier, but image
quality is just as
good, if not better
28 15 -28 April 2015
LAPTOP I £1300 from www.snipca.com/15909
COMING SOON
Toshiba Kira 107
A sleek and light laptop that's undergone a nip and tuck
The Kira 107 is an updated version
of Toshiba’s excellent Kira 101
ultra-portable laptop (also knov^n
as the Kirabook, see our reviev^ in
Issue 424). The 107 retains the
same slender, sturdy and stylish
metallic casing as its predecessor,
but inside you’ll find one of Intel’s
latest processors.
The dual-core Core i7 5500U
runs at 2.4GHz and is paired with
8GB of memory, so it’s certainly
quick enough to be your main
computer. That said, it’s only
slightly faster than the
previous-generation Core i7
processor in the Kira 101.
More frustrating is the
irritatingly loud processor-
cooling fan. Fiddling with Windows’
power options helped alleviate this
somewhat, but it’s still a pain.
Disappointingly, and despite the
new energy-efficient processor, battery
life is only on a par with the previous
model. It’s still a decent 13 and a half
hours, but other laptops can achieve
even more. Nevertheless, this is still
more than good enough for working
on the go and the Kira’s weight (1.3kg)
makes it easy to cany.
The colour accuracy and contrast of the
13in screen are excellent, although the
colours can fall victim to the screen’s
narrow viewing angles and slight grainy
sheen. Just like the Kira 101, the display
has a sky-high resolution of 2560x1440
pixels (which is one of the main reasons
the price is sky high too). This results in
sharp text and exceptionally detailed
images. There are a few Windows
programs that still don’t work properly
on compact, high-resolution screens like
this (displaying tiny, illegible text), but
most popular software is now compatible.
The screen is touch-sensitive, but using
it for extended periods of time is a recipe
SPECIFICATIONS
2.4GHz Intel Core 17 3500U dual-core processor
• 8GB memory • 256GB SSD • Intel HD 5500
integrated graphics chip*13.3in 2560x1440-pixel
screen • 802.11ac/a/b/g/n • Windows 8.1 • 1.3kg
(1.6kg with charger) •20x316x207mm (HxWxD) •
One-year warranty www.snipca.com/15910
for arm ache. It’s far more comfortable
to use the keyboard and touchpad
instead. While the touchpad is still
not quite on a par with the very best,
it’s far more responsive and accurate
than that on the Kira 101. We could
touch-type on the keyboard quickly
and without making errors, but it
could still be better. The keys lack a
little travel and therefore feel quite
shallow, but we got used to them
after some practice.
The Kira 107 is a good laptop with a
lot going for it, but it adds up to a pretty
modest upgrade on its predecessor.
It’s still one of the best ultra-portable
Windows laptops available, despite its
irritating flaws, but we expect it to be
overtaken soon by laptops made by
Toshiba’s rivals that will also come
equipped with Intel’s latest processors.
VERDICT: A good laptop, but barely
changed from its predecessor
ALTERNATIVE: Asus ZenBook
UX303LA £683 It's 200g heavier
and has a lower-resolution screen,
but it does come
with a comparable
keyboard and simil
battery life at a mu
lower price
MAY 2015
Microsoft has announced
the Surface 3, a cheaper
and lighter version of the
Surface Pro 3 tablet. Itll
have a lO.Sin
1080p screen,
the new Atom
X7 processor and weigh
622g. Unlike the Surface 2, it will use
Windows 8.1 and not Windows RT.
SUMMER 2015
Sony has
announced that
all but one model
in its 2015 range
of smart TVs will
use Google's Android TV interface
and have YouView built in.
AUTUMN 2015
Humax has
announced it will
make Freeview
Play-branded PVRs (personal video
recorders). These set-top boxes will
have catch-up TV apps and built-in
Wi-Fi in addition to video recording.
' FreeviewPlay
AUTUMN 2015
Apple is rumoured to be
working on a 12in iPad
Pro which will reportedly
come with a stylus and
the ability to run multiple
apps on screen side by side.
Tliese and much more...
Subscribe to Computeractive at
www.getcomputeractive.co.uk
15 -28 April 2015 29
LAPTOP
ASUSX555LA-XX290H
£320 from www.snipca.com/16014
Tested: Issue 446
Asus has made all the right choices
with this budget Windows 8.1 laptop,
its comfortable keyboard, fast
performance, respectably lengthy
battery life and bright screen are all the
more impressive given its low price.
ALTERNATIVE Asus Chromebook C200
A cheap Chrome OS ultra-portable
laptop with a bright screen, lengthy
battery life and a great keyboard.
£190 from www.snipca.com/15269
PHONE
Motorola Moto G 4G
£150 (without contract) from
www.snipca.com/14162
Tested: Issue 432
Motorola's budget Android smartphone
is an absolute steal. It's very responsive,
well made, fast and has a good screen.
Plus, it's now been updated with 4G and
a microSD card slot.
ALTERNATIVE: Apple iPhone 5s
An excellent smartphone with a great
camera and performance. £459 without
a contract from www.snipca.com/10171
Find out what other products we liked in 2014. I
Buy our Back Issue CD now;
www.snipca.coin/14981 1
OM!
Fh-i b
JjH
Our pick of products that have won the Buy It award
DESKTOP PC
Palicomp AMD Kaveri
Evolution
£500 from www.snipca.com/11804
Tested: Issue 422
A budget PC with a fast overclocked
processor. It also has good upgrade
potential and comes with a surprisingly
good 24in monitor, as well as a quality
USB keyboard and mouse.
ALTERNATIVE: Chillblast Fusion Rhino
A very powerful and compact PC sold
without a keyboard, mouse or monitor.
£899 from www.snipca.com/15252
TABLET
Apple iPad Mini 2
£239 from www.snipca.com/14467
Tested: Issue 416
Apple's mini tablet from 2013 is now
available at an even lower price. The
only thing it lacks compared with
the Mini 3 is a fingerprint sensor and
the option of lots of built-in storage.
Otherwise, it's an absolute bargain.
ALTERNATIVE: Apple iPad Air 2 A
thin and lightweight lOin tablet with a
fingerprint reader, an excellent screen
and peerless selection of apps. £399
from www.snipca.com/14309
DIGITAL CAMERA
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF6
£270 from www.snipca.com/12607
Tested: Issue 405
This compact interchangeable-lens
camera is small and reasonably priced,
yet it has well-designed controls, a wide
range of available lenses and shoots
excellent quality photos. The GF6 really
is unbeatable value.
ALTERNATIVE: Sony A5000 A rival
CSC with better low-light performance,
although its controls and range of
available lenses aren't quite as good.
£259 from www.snipca.com/15854
E-READER
Kobo Aura H20
£140 from www.snipca.com/15490
Tested: Issue 435
A waterproof e-reader with an easy-to-
read, high-resolution touchscreen that's
easy on the eyes and great for reading
in the bath. There's no 3G version, but,
unlike the Amazon Kindle, you can buy
ebooks from independent retailers that
use the ePub format.
ALTERNATIVE: Amazon Kindle Voyage
The best Kindle yet, with a sharp,
extremely responsive touchscreen
and easy-grip design. £169 from
www.snipca.com/14451
30 15 -28 April 2015
BUY IT!
★★★★★
SECURITY SOFTWARE
Kaspersky Internet
Security 2015
£17.99 from www.snipca.com/14212
Tested: Issue 427
Kaspersky Internet Security 2015 has
won our past four antivirus tests - an
unprecedented set of results. The 2015
edition is available at an exclusive reader
discount on our Software Store. Click the
link above for a one-device licence, or buy
a three-device licence for just £39.99 at
www.snipca.com/14221.
ALTERNATIVE: Norton Internet Security
2014 An affordable program, but
sometimes blocked legitimate software.
£30 from www.snipca.com/15115
PHOTO EDITING
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5
£98 from www.snipca.com/14348
Tested: Issue 402
PC MONITOR
DellUltraSharpU2412M
£214 from www.snipca.com/14610
Tested: Issue 378
Lightroom is a consistently elegant,
powerful and fast photo-management
program packed with sophisticated
features. If you want to keep on top of
your photos and make them look great,
there's no better software to do it with.
ALTERNATIVE: Adobe Photoshop
Elements 13 A fast and polished
photo-editing program with excellent
advanced editing tools. £57 from
www.snipca.com/14731
An exquisite monitor with superb image
quality, an adjustable stand, a high
resolution and even a built-in U5B hub.
it costs a little more than other monitors,
but it's money well spent, it's easily the
best-value monitor we've seen and is
the one by which all others are judged.
ALTERNATIVE: AOC i2360PHU A good
quality budget 23in monitor that's easily
adjustable and has a built-in U5B 2.0 hub
too. £153 from www.snipca.com/15274
SECURITY CAMERA
Y-cam HomeMonitor HD
£147 from www.snipca.com/11646
Tested: Issue 420
A home-security camera that's well
priced and easy to set up. Plus, it has
great picture quality, useful apps and
there's no need to subscribe to any extra
services, it's a worthy successor to the
original HomeMonitor, our previous
favourite security camera.
ALTERNATIVE: D-Link Wireless N Day
& Night Camera A good-value security
camera with excellent night vision. £85
from www.snipca.com/15275
ROUTER
Trendnet TEW-812DRU
£112 from www.snipca.com/15855
Tested: Issue 427
An incredibly fast 802.11ac router
that's also one of the cheapest we've
seen. It's superb and it's the router to
buy if you're ready to make the jump
to 802.11ac.
ALTERNATIVE: Linicsys WRT1900AC
More expensive, but even faster and
with loads of features too. £200 from
www.snipca.com/14950
NAS
Synology DiskStation
DS213j
£125 from www.snipca.com/16015
Tested: Issue 404
This NA5 enclosure has it all - fast
performance, easy configuration and
plenty of extra features. It's not perfect
- disk installation is a little fiddly and it's
a tad pricey - but there are few other
NA5 devices we would rather buy.
ALTERNATIVE: Synology DS414j
A four-drive NA5 that's generally fast
and easy to set up and use too. £262
from www.snipca.com/12545
15-28 April 2015
31
WEB DESIGN
Serif WebPlusXS
£90 from www.snipca.com/15278
Tested: Issue 443
WebPlus X8 is one of the best programs
available for designing a website
without having to write a line of code, it
comes with lots of templates, with more
available for purchase if you need them,
it also has lots of specialist tools for
building a small business website.
ALTERNATIVE: Jimdo Pro This browser-
based program for creating websites is
slick and feature packed, but lacking in
high-quality templates. £60 a year from
www.jimdo.com/pricing
SMART TV
Samsung UE32H6200
£329 from www.snipca.com/16016
Tested: Issue 427
A stylish 32in smart TV with great picture
quality and apps for all the terrestrial TV
catch-up services, it has plenty of extras,
too, such as recording-to-USB storage,
3D, playing media files stored on a NAS
or USB stick, and plenty of HDMi ports.
ALTERNATIVE: Sony l<DL-42W705B
Excellent image quality, stylish looks
and a 42in screen. £400 from www.
snipca.com/12931
COMPETITION
Win 1 of 2
TP-LINK TD-W8980 dual-
band routers
Easy to set up and
made from sleek,
glossy plastic,
TP-LiNK's
TD-W8980 is
one of the best budget routers we've
tested recently (see our 'Great Pick'
review in Issue 445). It's a dual-band
router, so it can operate on the 2.4GHz
and 5GHz bands, hitting top speeds of
116.5Mbps at 10 metres and 93.2Mbps
at 25 metres. TTiis is impressive for such
a well-priced router. To enter, email
your address to cacomp^dennis.co.uk
by midnight 28 April.
TP-LINK'S TD-W8980 router is
available to buy now priced £59.
For more info visit http://uk.tp-link.
com, follow TP-LiNK on Twitter
((Ptplinkgamin^) and 'like' TP-LINK's
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/
tplinkuk.
MULTIFUNCTION PRINTER
Canon Pixma MG4250
£50 from www.snipca.com/12457
Tested: Issue 382
This budget multifunction printer (MFP)
isn't the fastest available, but it's cheap
to buy and inexpensive to run. Just as
importantly, both prints and scans look
great. Unless you need faster print
speeds or separate ink tanks for each
colour, this MFP is the one to buy.
ALTERNATIVE: Canon Pixma MX535
An MFP aimed at small offices with
duplex, ADF and fax, but also good
photo print quality. £68 from www.
snipca.com/15117
SOLID-STATE DRIVE
Crucial BXlOO 1TB
£318 from www.snipca.com/16017
Tested: Issue 445
A blindingly fast, high-capacity SSD at
a lower price than ever before. If you've
been put off buying a SSD because of
the cost, then now is finally the time to
take the plunge. If the 1TB model we
reviewed is still too pricey or just overkill
for your needs, cheaper 120GB, 250GB
and 500GB models are also available.
ALTERNATIVE: Samsung 850 Pro
256GB An even faster SSD, but it is
much more expensive per gigabyte.
£87 from www.snipca.com/16018
HOMEPLUCS
Devolo dLAN 1200 Triple+
Starter Kit
£119 from www.snipca.com/15369
Tested: Issue 444
Devolo's latest Homeplug adapters are
the fastest we've ever seen. They're also
well designed too, with a passthrough
socket so you can still power another
device and the design should avoid
skirting boards and other obstacles.
ALTERNATIVE: Devolo dLAN 650 Triple+
Starter Kit These Homeplug adapters
have a space-saving design and three
Gigabit Ethernet ports for connecting
multiple devices to your network. £77
from www.snipca.com/16019
32 15 -28 April 2015
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tailored to your needs. These include clever
new add-ons for Chrome, amazing free apps
for Android and stunning sights in Google Maps.
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(cheaper than in the shops!)
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO
ANDROID
Inside this 148-page
book you'll find all the
free apps, expert tips
and easy-to-follow
Workshops you need to
get the most out of your
phone or tablet. You'll find
buying advice, including
reviews of the latest tablets and phones, and
everything you need to know about taking
your first steps with your new device.
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Workshops & Tips
14 pages of easy-to-follow workshops and expert tips
35 Make amazing
panoramas from your photos
38 Take screenshots using
Windows
40 Edit videos on
your iPad
42 Create a fake virus to
test your PC's security
PLUS
[ 43 Readers' Tips
I 44 Phone & Tablet Tips
I 46 Make Windows Better
47 Make Office Better
48 Secret Tips For...
Pixlr
Make amazing panoramas
from your photos
What you need: Image Composite Editor; Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 8.1
Time required: 45 minutes
I mage Composite Editor (ICE) is a
free Mierosoft program (released
in 2008) that ereates stunning
panoramas of your photos by
merging them. It has now been
updated with a new interfaee and
ineludes new tools that let you
fill in any missing gaps in your
panorama and upload it to
Photosynth - a Mierosoft
website that lets you zoom in
and out of your photos.
For convenience, you should first create a folder on
your Desktop and save the photos you’re planning to
use in your panorama there (in this Workshop, we’ll
merge five images). Before downloading ICE, you’ll need to
determine your version of Windows (64bit or 32bit). To do that,
right-click Computer on your Desktop or Start menu, then click
Properties and look under ‘System type’ □. Now go to www.
snipca. com/16028 and click the Download ICE 2.0 option that
corresponds to your PC. Next, click the Download button, then
the setup file that downloads, and finally Run.
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STEP
2
To work, ICE needs a feature called ‘Microsoft Visual
C++ 2013 Runtime Libraries’. If you don’t have this,
you’ll be prompted to install it from the Microsoft
website. Click Yes to go to the site, click the red Download
button, tick the file that corresponds to your version of
Windows, then click Next. Now click the downloaded file. Run,
tick the terms and conditions box, then Install. When that’s
finished click Close. Now reopen your ICE setup file (in your
Downloads folder), click Run, Next, tick 1 Agree □, click Next
again 9, select Everyone, then click Next (twice) to install it.
When it’s installed, click Close to open the program.
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15 -28 April 2015 35
Workshops
STEP
Click New Panorama From Images at the top left.
Navigate to the folder you created on your Desktop,
press Ctrl+A to select the photos, then click Open. You
can add more by clicking ‘Add images’ O or by dragging and
dropping them into the ICE window. To remove a photo, click it,
then click ‘Remove selected’ B. You can organise your photos by
name or by the time they were taken using the ‘Sort by’
dropdown menu B.
Make sure your photos are positioned in the order you
want them merged (from left to right), then click
Stitch at the top. ICE will automatically merge them to
create a single panoramic view. You can zoom in and out using
the zoom slider D or by clicking the image and scrolling your
mouse wheel. Click the different Projection styles B to try the
visual effects and find the one that best suits your panorama.
If your panorama isn’t straight, click ‘Auto orientation’ B.
STEP
After selecting your Projection style
(we selected Mercator - see screenshot),
click Crop at the top (to change the
Projection style, click Stitch to go back, select
another Projection style, then click Crop). Next,
click ‘Auto crop’ □ to place a white (extendable)
frame around your image. If there are empty black
spaces a within your frame, click ‘Auto complete’ B
to fill them spaces (this works best when filling flat
expanses such as land or sky). The process can
take a few minutes.
When that’s finished, you should see a
fully realised rectangular panoramic
image. To compare this image to the
pre-Auto complete version, untick ‘Use auto
completion’ D. You can return to earlier stages of
the process (such as Import or Stitch B) to make
any changes. If you want to set the width and
height (in pixels) of your panorama, type those
values in the box on the right and click ‘Auto
crop’. When you’re happy with your panorama,
click Export B.
36 15 -28 April 2015
Make amazing panoramas from your photos
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To save your panorama, click the
Image dropdown menu, and
select JPEG Image D from the
‘File format’ dropdown menu (this is the
best format for saving panoramas). Next,
click the Quality dropdown menu and
select Superb (it’s set to High by default).
Now type 100 in the field beside Quality 0 .
The resulting file will be larger but you’ll
see more detail. Finally, click ‘Export to
disk’ 0 , name the file, save it wherever
you want on your PC, then click Save.
The Deep Zoom dropdown
menu D lets you create a high-
resolution image that you can
upload online, but it only works with
certain Projection styles and on websites
that support interactive (pan and zoom)
elements. A better option is to upload
your image to Microsoft’s free Photosynth
website, where others can view it using
pan and zoom options. To do this,
click the Photosynth dropdown menu 0 ,
then click ‘Sign in’ and log in using your
Microsoft (Outlook or Hotmail) accounts.
Now, create a Photosynth ID,
then click ‘Create account’. Next,
give your panorama a title, tags
(keywords for search purposes) and a
description O' Tick ‘Use location from
photos’ 0 (to pin your image’s location on
a map - see Step 10). Now select Public
from the Visibility dropdown menu to let
anyone see your image, then click the
‘Photo rights’ dropdown menu and select
whether you want to copyright your
image or make it freely available for
others to use. Finally, click ‘Publish to
Photosynth’ 0 .
STEP
IQ
If you don’t have Microsoft Silverlight installed, you’ll
be prompted to install it because panoramic photos on
Photosynth can’t be viewed without it. Click Install
Microsoft Silverlight, then the downloaded setup file, followed
by ‘Install now’ and Close. You’ll now see an interactive (pan
and zoom) version of your image on Photosynth. Use the
controls □ to zoom in and out of and pan across your image.
You can edit your Title and Description 0 if you want. Clicking
the Focation tab 0 will display the precise location of your
pictures in Bing Maps. If the pinned location is in the wrong
place, click and drag it to the correct location, then click Save
at the bottom. #
15 -28 April 2015 37
Workshops
Take screenshots
using Windows
What you need: Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 10 Time required: 15 minutes
Y ou don’t need to install a
third-party program to take
sereenshots on your PC beeause
Windows lets you do this in a few
easy steps. We’ll explain the various
features of Windows’ Snipping Tool,
whieh makes it easy to ereate
sereenshots of your entire Desktop,
seleeted areas of it, or any open
window It also lets you draw on
your sereenshot or highlight
seetions of it. Finally, we’ll explain
how to ereate sereenshots using
keyboard shorteuts.
H Click the Start button and type snipping tool to
see the Snipping Tool listed D. Drag and drop
this option on to your Desktop to create a
shortcut Q (optional). Open the program and you’ll see
three options B. Click the New dropdown menu to see
four methods of creating a screenshot. Click the first
option (Free-form Snip) and your entire screen will be
greyed out and your cursor replaced by a scissors icon.
Keeping your mouse clicked, drag your cursor carefully
around the area you want to capture. When you release
the mouse your screenshot will appear in a new window.
If you’re happy with your screenshot, you can move to
Step 3. Alternatively, you can try the other options.
Click Rectangular Snip D to take a screenshot of a
rectangular section of your screen (adjust it by clicking and
dragging your cursor). Click Window Snip B, point your cursor
at any open window on your Desktop (such as a browser or a
program) to highlight it with a red border, then click to take a
screenshot of that window. Full-screen Snip B takes a
screenshot of your entire Desktop.
If you’re using a screenshot to illustrate a problem on
your PC to someone, use the Pen and Highlight tools to
flag up up specific screen elements. Click the Pen
dropdown menu D and select one of the four colours. Keeping
your mouse clicked, draw around the area you want to flag up B.
To change the colour, thickness and tip of the pen, click the Pen
dropdown menu, then Customise to open the Custom Pen
window. Use the dropdown menus B to change those values.
Finally, click OK.
38 15 -28 April 2015
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H The Highlighter tool D lets you highlight an3^hing in
your screenshot B, similar to highlighting text in a
Word document. You can delete any mistakes you
make by clicking the Eraser icon 0, then clicking the erroneous
mark.
You can email, copy or save your screenshot. Click
the Email dropdown menu □ to see two options.
Email Recipient adds the screenshot to the body of
an email in your email program, while ‘E-mail Recipient (as an
attachment)’ attaches it to an email. Click the Copy icon 0 to
copy your screenshot, which you can then paste to any other
program, such as Word or PowerPoint. Click the Save Snip
icon 0 , select where you want to save it, name your screenshot,
then click Save.
Alternatively you can use keyboard shortcuts to create
screenshots, which you can then edit in Paint. To take
a screenshot of your entire Desktop, press the Print
Screen key on your keyboard. To take a screenshot of a specific
window (such as Eirefox), open the program and click the
window, then keeping the Alt key pressed, press Print Screen.
Your screenshot will be saved to your clipboard. To edit it in
Paint, click the Start button, type paint and press Enter. Now
click the Paste dropdown menu E| then click Paste 0 to see
your screenshot 0.
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To crop your screenshot, click Select at the top left in
Paint, click and drag your mouse to select the area you
want to retain, right-click inside this area, then click
Crop. To add your own marks (as you did in Step 3), click the
Brushes icon D. Use the Eraser 0 to delete any mistakes. Paint has
an option to add a text box to your screenshot, which is useful if
you want to explain a problem in greater detail. Click the A icon 0,
then click and drag your cursor to position your text box. Next,
click inside this box and start typing. You’ll see options to change
your font style, size and format at the top left. Press Ctrl+S to save
this screenshot to your PC. #
TIhi
15 -28 April 2015 39
Workshops
Edit videos on your iPad
What you need: Clips Video Editor; iPhone or iPad
Time required: 35 minutes
E very iOS video-editing app
has restrietions as to what
you ean do before you need to
‘unloek’ features with in- app
purehases. Clips Video Editor
is the best app of this type
we’ve used. The free version
lets you make professional
edits with ease - ineluding
positioning video elips and
adding transitions, a
soundtraek and a voieeover -
but adds a small app ieon at
the bottom left of your edited
video. If you don’t want this,
it’s worth upgrading to the
paid-for version (£3.99 as a
one-time purehase).
H Install and open Clips Video Editor (www.
snipca.com/16009) and follow the instructions.
When you see the option, tap Continue at the
top right (to skip the instructions). Now either tap
‘Upgrade to pro - £3.99’ to purchase the app (this
removes the app icon from your final edit) or Skip
(if you don’t mind the icon). Next, tap the ‘ + ’ icon to
create your first video. The app lets you save a copy of
your edited video to your iPad (not all editing apps offer
this). To do this, tap the Settings iconD, the slider
beside ‘Auto Save to Camera Roll’, then Done at the top
right. Now tap the ‘ + ’ symbol at the bottom to see two
options: Imports (to import video clips from your
device) and Camera B (to shoot your own clips). To
import clips, tap Import, select the clips you want to add
(in any order), then tap Next and go to Step 4. If you
want to shoot your own clips, go to Step 2.
If you tapped Camera, the first time you use this option
you’ll be taken through mandatory instructions, for
which you need to shoot a minimum of six clips. Hold
your device in the landscape mode, then tap the small shutter
icon D for options to change the area of focus, brightness and
zoom range using sliders (other apps don’t offer this). To record
using your front camera, tap the rotate icon B. Tap the Record
button B to begin recording. A timer will appear at the top of
your screen. Tap the Record button again to stop recording.
Now point your device at something else and repeat
Step 2 to record. The timer Q will continue from where
you left off. If you’re doing this for the first time, you’ll
need to repeat this step four more times. You’ll see optional
suggestions to shoot different types of video (for example,
moving your camera, close ups, a still recording and so on).
Tap the Bin icon B to delete the clip you’re recording if you
don’t like it. When you’ve finished recording your clips, tap the
green tick B.
40 15 -28 April 2015
H You’ re now prompted to add background
music, so tap the musical note icon. This
brings up a list of 12 free-to-use music
tracks. You can also use tracks stored on your iPad by
tapping Songs □, selecting the track you want, then
playing it. To start the song from a particular point,
drag the white dot B to that point on the audio
slider, tap the pause icon on the left, then tap Next B
to add it to your video.
STEP
You’ll now see a simple editing screen with four icons at the top,
the video player in the middle, a green video timeline and your
video clips below. Tap the player to play your clips in succession.
To play an individual clip, tap its thumbnail D. You can edit the length of a
clip by moving its start and end sliders B. To reposition a clip within the
video, tap and hold the three lines beside it B, then move it up or down. To
remove a clip from the video, drag its slider from one end (left or right) to
the other, then tap Remove. You can record or import another video clip by
tapping the ‘+’ symbol at the bottom and choosing Camera or Import.
By default, your clips will start and end
quite abruptly within your montage.
If you prefer more subtle fade in/fade out
transitions, you can add dissolves. Tap the Transition
icon at the top D. You can either tap All Dissolves B
to add one between every transition or Dissolve B to
add it to individual transitions. Drag the slider on the
green timeline to the start, then tap the video to play
it and check you’re happy with your edits.
To add a voiceover to your video, tap the mic icon □, then the red
mic at the bottom and speak your voiceover as your video plays.
Next, tap the Speaker icon B. The blue, green and orange sliders
represent the volume level of your clips, background music and voiceover
respectively. Play your video and adjust the sliders. To save your edited
video, tap Save El then tap the Photos icon at the bottom. If you didn’t
purchase the app (in Step 1), you’ll see two options: ‘Export with
watermark’ and ‘No more watermarks £3.99’. Tap the one you want.
After your video is saved, you can watch it in the app, as well as through
the iOS Photos app on your iPad. #
15 -28 April 2015 41
Workshops
Create a fake virus
your PC's security
What you need: WinRAR (or a similar file-compression program); EICARgen
Time required: 10 minutes
Y ou depend on your PC’s
antivirus to keep you safe,
but how ean you be sure that it’s
working properly? EICARgen is a
fake virus that you ean download
and run to assess how powerful
your antivirus is. It’s an easy, free
and eompletely safe way to eheek
your antivirus is safeguarding
your PC properly We’ll show
you how to do this in a few
simple steps.
to test
H EICARgen is a zipped file, so you need a program that
manages those (such as 7-Zip, PeaZip, WinZip or
WinRAR). We’re using the free WinRAR (www.snipca.
com/15898), one of our favourite free programs. To download and
install it, click the version (32bit or 64bit) that corresponds to your
PC at the top of the web page. To find out your PC’s version, right-
click Computer on your Desktop or Start menu. Properties, then
look under ‘System type’ in the System section. Next, create a new
folder on your PC to save the extracted EICARgen file to. Open
Computer, C Drive, Users and the folder with your Windows
username D. Now click ‘New folder’ B and name it Eicargen B.
Now go to www.snipca.com/15896, scroll down and
click the ‘ElCARgen_V2_l.zip’ link (below the video) to
download it. To extract the contents of this file to the
Eicargen folder you created, navigate to the ‘ElCARgen_V2_l’
zipped file (in your Downloads folder) O, right-click it, then
click ‘Extract files’. In the pane that opens click the ‘+’ symbol
next to your name B, select the Eicargen folder you created (in
Step 1), then click OK. (This step may differ slightly if you’re
using a different file-compression program).
You now need to run the file from the Eicargen folder
using Command Prompt. Navigate to the Eicargen
folder, press and hold the Shift key, right-click the
folder □, then click ‘Open command window here’. Type
eicargen.exe write Bin Command Prompt, then press Enter.
Our favourite antivirus program (Kaspersky Internet Security
2015, see page 68) detected the file as malware B. If yours
doesn’t, update your antivirus and repeat this step. If you still
don’t see a security warning, then consider replacing your
antivirus program with a better one, preferably Kaspersky.
STEP
3
NEXT ISSUE
• Transfer huge video files in seconds
• Try Microsoft’s new Spartan browser
/ ON SALE
^29 April
• Add music and videos to your documents
• Make free mobile phone calls forever
i
( 5 )
Subscribe to Computeractive at getcomputeractive.co.uk
42 15 -28 April 2015
Readers' Tips
Handy hints and tips from your fellow readers
0 Email us your tips: letters(Scomputeractive.co.uk
TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT
Make your Skype font bigger and set hotkeys for calls
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My son is spending a year travelling
across India and Australia and we use
Skype to keep in touch via video calls
(when his bandwidth permits it).
One niggle I have is with the size of
the fonts on Skype, which are too small
for my liking. I decided to delve into
Skype’ s settings in an effort to make the
font larger. While doing this, I also
found a way to set keyboard shortcuts
for certain actions within Skype (such
as answering calls).
Sk3^e usually updates itself
automatically when you log in, but to
make sure you have the latest version,
click Help at the top, then ‘Check for
Updates’ and follow the instructions.
To change the font type, style and size,
click Tools at the top, then Options.
Next, click IM & SMS at the bottom left.
‘IM appearance’, then
‘Change font’. Choose a
font, font style (regular,
bold or italics) and size,
click OK, then Save.
All your Skype
conversations will
instantly change to
reflect your new font.
To change keyboard
shortcuts for Skype
actions, click Tools,
Options, Advanced at
the bottom left, then
click Hotkeys. Now tick
‘Enable hotkey shortcuts’. You’ll see
pre-set hotkeys for actions such as
answering a call with voice and video.
Tick the action key you want to use,
then double-click it. Next, tick the
modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl or Alt) you
want to use in conjunction, type any
other key in the field beside that (see
screenshot above), click
OK, then Save.
Laura Finn
The winner of every Tip of the Fortnight wins this exclusive Computeractive mug!
SCREEN BRIGHTNESS
Reduce eye strain when using
your PC at night
I used to avoid using my PC late in
the evening because, even with the
lights turned on and the PC’s brightness
set to a low level, the glare of the screen
was often too much for my eyes, resulting
in headaches and trouble sleeping.
A friend recommended a free program
called SunsetScreen, which gradually
lowers the glare of your PC screen
throughout the evening. Go to www
snipca.com/15916 (where you can read
the science behind how the program
works), then click Download SunsetScreen
at the top right. Click the setup file and
follow the steps to install it.
When it loads, enter the time of sunrise
where you are (find this out online) at the
top left. The program will now dim (or
brighten) your PC’s screen depending on
the time of day. As it gets darker outside.
your PC will take on a slight orange tint,
making it less of a strain on your eyes.
If you want to modify its settings
manually, then click the Night/Day
Colour tabs and move the Sunset/ Sunrise
colour (K) slider, or click the ‘Day/Night
preset’ dropdown menu and choose one
of the options (see screenshot below left).
Now, I can use my PC late into the evening
and still have a good night’s sleep.
Brendan Perry
FILE CONVERSION
Save web articles as PDFs
Thanks for your helpful Workshop
on Cloud Convert (see ‘Convert any
file without software’. Issue 444). The
website really does live up to its boast to
‘Convert anything to anything’.
Another feature I discovered while
using it was the ability to save web pages
as PDFs. This is great if you enjoy reading
web articles offline (as I do). I can even
sync them to my cloud-storage
account and read them on my
tablet. And, because the quality is
so good, I sometimes even print
these PDFs to read when I’m on
the train to visit my daughter.
Go to www.cloudconvert.com,
click the ‘Select files’ dropdown
menu on the left, select ‘Add from
URL’, paste the URL you want to
convert, then click Add. Now click the
‘select format’ dropdown menu, move
your cursor to ‘document’, select ‘pdf’,
then click the red Start Conversion
button. After it’s finished, click the green
Download button to download your file.
Philip Dean
MOVIE STREAMING
See every NetfUx title at a
glance in Chrome
I love watching classic films on
Netflix (www.netflix.com), but
don’t have the patience to click the
navigation arrows to browse films in each
movie category. My son showed me a new
way to modify Netflix so that it displays a
long scrolling list of thumbnails within
each category, which is a great way to
see all the available films and TV
programmes at a glance.
To enable this in Chrome, you need to
add the free bookmarklet called Netflix
God Mode to your browser. Go to www.
snipca.com/15917, then drag and drop
the green Netflix God Mode icon on to
Chrome’s bookmark bar. Next, go to
www.netflix.com, sign into your account,
then click the Netflix God Mode option
in your bookmarks bar.
David Weatherall
15 -28 April 2015 43
Phone and Tablet Tips
Brilliant things to do on your device
ANDROID
Dictate long emails and
text messages
Sending long text messages or
emails can be a bit of a chore,
1 1 especially if your typing skills
aren’t up to much. But you can dictate
messages and emails into Google and let
it compose them for you. Tap the text
message or email you want to reply to
or start composing a new one, then tap
the microphone icon on your onscreen
keyboard. If you use SwiftKey Keyboard
as your third-party keyboard, then
long-press the comma icon.
Compose ® >
Receipt atlaefieti
Heikh please see attached Ihe receipt
/ou requested sorry fuf the dele;;/ in
sending it if you need any more info
please tel me know tbarik youj
Taplo pause
A panel will open with a ‘Speak now’
option. Start dictating your message
and it will automatically appear as text.
For best results, speak slowly and ensure
you’re in a quiet place. When we tried it,
Google correctly recognised every word
we spoke (see screenshot below left).
When you’ve finished dictating, you
may have to correct any misspelled
words and punctuate your text.
ANDROID
Search for Wikipedia
pages faster
The latest update to the free
I III Wikipedia app (www.snipca.
com/15977) automatically gives
you a list of suggestions as you type in
the search bar and remembers your
previous searches.
Open the app and tap the search bar
at the top to see a list of all your previous
searches (most recent search terms
appear first). Tap the Bin icon, then Yes,
to delete any. Type your new search terms
and you’ll see a list of relevant Wikipedia
entries, which you can tap to open.
ANDROID
Play the hidden
Android Lollipop game
Google has a quirky habit of
|^H| hiding certain features (known as
vT ‘Easter eggs’) within its various
products. One of the latest is a secret
game, which can only be accessed on
devices running the latest Android
operating system (5.0) called Lollipop.
To check your device version, open
your Settings, scroll to the bottom, then
tap ‘About phone /tablet/device’, then
check ‘Android version’. Anything above
5.0 means you have Lollipop. Keep
tapping ‘Android version’ until you
see a small dot on your screen. Tap the
dot to see a lollipop icon (which will
change colour when tapped).
Tap and hold the Lollipop icon to begin
playing the game, which requires you
(represented by the Android logo) to
navigate across a field of lollipops by
tapping your screen. It’s addictive,
tough to master (we couldn’t score more
than 4 points) and is great fun if you
have a bit of time to kill.
ANDROID & lOS
Use less of your data allowance
while browsing in Chrome
t|
Google has introduced
a new Data Saver mode
in the latest version of its
Chrome mobile app (Android www
snipca.com/15978; iOS www.snipca.
com/15980), which is particularly useful
if you have limited data allowance. It
works by compressing web pages before
Chrome loads them, but the feature is
switched off by default.
To turn it on in Android, open Chrome,
tap the three dots at the top right, then
Settings. Now tap the new Data Saver
setting at the bottom of your screen,
then tap the slider to turn it on.
Best New Apps
What you should install this fortnight
850 Sports News Digest
Free
Android: www.snipca.com/15982
iOS: www.snipca.com/15983
This app gets its name from the fact that
you get a round-up of latest developments
in your favourite sports (including relevant
graphs and statistics)
at exactly 8.50 every
morning. By default,
you'll see updates
for all sports
(including football,
rugby and Formula 1),
but you can narrow
your selection
within the My Sports
section.
i Enlight
j £2.99
; iOS: www.snipca.
I com/15984
[ This photo-editing
; app has more
I features than any
I similar app we've
= seen. Aside from
i options that let
^ you crop, rotate
i and change
brightness or
saturation, you can
add text, borders, filters and create a collage
from your photos. It also lets you save the
changes you make to one image, then apply
them to others.
TomTom GO Mobile
Free
Android: www.snipca.com/15985
TomTom's latest app lets you navigate
for 50 miles per month for free (paid-for
options beyond that start at £14.99 a
year). It includes all of TomTom's reliable
features, including real-time traffic
information and alerts for speed cameras.
44 15 -28 April 2015
On an iOS device, tap the three dots at
the top right, Settings, Bandwidth, Data
Saver, then tap the slider to turn it on.
From now on, you’ll see a graph in this
section that shows you how much data
(as a percentage) you have saved using
this mode.
IOS
Customise how you want
Spotlight to work
Spotlight is the iOS feature
that lets you search for items
X anywhere on your device when
you tap a blank area of your home
screen and swipe down. It lists your
search results in categories, which
appear in a specific order (Apps,
Spotlight Suggestions, Contacts, Music,
Podcasts and so on). Bing Web Results is
the final option. However, it’s easy to
change the order in which these search
categories appear.
So, for example, if you prefer web-
search results to appear first, then tap
Settings, General, then Spotlight Search
to see all the search categories listed.
Tap and hold the three horizontal lines
next to the category you want to
reposition (for example, Bing Web Results
- see screenshot below), then drag it up
the list. To exclude a category from
Spotlight’s searches, tap it to untick it.
Gener^ Spotlight Searuh
SEAflOl RESULTS
Bin^ Web Besolte
^ Ap^icattons
Spotlight Suggestions
^ Coittacts
^ Music
iOS
Find specific text within
images using OneNote
The latest update to the free
( ' i Microsoft OneNote for iPad app
(www.snipca.com/1598l) lets you
search for text within an image, such as a
photo of a page or magazine cover. This
feature is already available in the PC
version of OneNote and it works using
OCR. We’ll show you how to use this
using a photo of last
issue’s Computeractive
cover, then searching
for the term ‘pc’.
Open the app, tap the
‘+’ symbol at the top
right to create a new
section, then name it.
Tap above the date and
time (at the top left) to
name your page within
that section, then tap
the main body of the
section. Next, tap the Insert tab at the
top, then Camera, point your iPad at the
page /cover containing text and tap the
shutter icon to take a picture. Finally,
tap the tick icon at the bottom right to
add this image to your page. You can
now search for any text within that
image by typing in the search bar at
the top right then tapping the relevant
page. All instances of that text in your
image will be highlighted (see
screenshot).
Games With Kids
What to play together on your phone and tablet
AGES 0-5
Elmo Loves ABCs for iPad
£3.99 www.snipca.com/15986 (iOS)
Teach your kids to write and identify letters
with this educational app, which features
Sesame Street characters. After they
correctly trace letters of the alphabet on
screen with their finger, they'll see videos
about objects that begin with that letter.
You can keep track of your child's progress.
AGES 6-10
Little Things Forever
Free www.snipca.com/15987 (Android)
£2.29 www.snipca.com/15988 (iOS)
This entertaining puzzle consists of a
mosaic made up of many tiny, different
objects. Children need to find all the objects
listed at the top right by zooming into
the mosaic and using the hints. As they
improve, they need to complete mosaic
puzzles by rotating and repositioning tiles.
%
AGES 11-16
Heads Up!
Free www.snipca.com/15989 (Android)
79p www.snipca.com/15990 (iOS)
This is a fun game for all the family. One
person chooses a category (these include
actors, movies and sea creatures), then
places the device on their forehead, so the
others can see the specific term (but the
person can't). The others shout out clues
about the term and the person needs to
identify as many as possible in a minute.
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15 -28 April 2015 45
Make Windows Better Clever tips for every version
WINDOWS 8. 10
Bypass your login screen
If you use a Desktop PC running
Windows 8 or 10, you have to log
in using your Microsoft (Hotmail
or Outlook) account. This lets you sync all
your settings and apps across multiple
PCs and Windows devices, and makes
setup easier when you buy a new PC.
While this works well if you’re the only
one using that Windows PC, it’s not ideal
if you share your computer with other
family members because it means you’ll
need to log them in every time. There’s an
easy way to bypass your login screen
entirely, if you’re happy to share your
PC with others.
To do this, right-click the Start button
to access the Quick Access Menu, then
click Run. In the Run box, t 5 ^e netplwiz,
then press Enter. Now untick the ‘Users
must enter a username and password to
use this computer’ box, then click Apply.
You’ll now need to enter and confirm
your password, then click OK twice.
WINDOWS?, 8, 10
Disable irritating tip boxes
By default, whenever
you move your cursor
your
Desktop or within File /Windows
Explorer - you’ll see a small pop-up
describing what the item is and what it
does. For example, point to a file and
you’ll see its name, type, size and when
you last opened it. Point to a setting and
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WINDOWS VISTA. 7. 8, 10
Make your mouse easier to use
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There are a
number of
- --- ways you can
customise how your mouse works
if you find it awkward to use for
any reason. For example, you can
swap the functions of the left and
right buttons, change how fast or
slowly a double-click registers,
and even change how you drag
and drop items.
Open Control Panel, click
‘Hardware and Sound’, then click
Mouse (in the ‘Devices and
Printers’ section) to open the
Mouse Properties window.
Click Apply and OK after each
change you make to activate it.
To use the right button on your
mouse to select and open items
(instead of the default left button),
tick the ‘Switch primary and secondary
buttons’ box at the top.
The ‘Double-click speed’ section lets
you control how quickly successive
clicks need to be made to register a
double-click. To find your ideal speed,
double-click the small folder on the
right. If it doesn’t open, move the slider
toward the Slow end and try again.
you’ll see a small summary of what it
_ does. These pop-ups are called
tooltips and there’s an easy way
to disable them if you find them
distracting.
Open Control Panel, click
‘Appearance and Personalization’,
then Folder Options (File-
Explorer Options in Windows 10)
at the bottom. Next, click the
View tab, then untick ‘Show
popup description for folder and
desktop items’ (see screenshot
left), click Apply, then OK. To
re-enable this option, repeat the
steps and tick the box.
J
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WINDOWS 7. 8. 10
Change your Microsoft
account picture
Your account
- picture
■ ■ appears on
your lock screen and Start
menu. By default, this is the
The third section, ClickFock, is
useful if you find the whole process
of dragging and dropping items a
bit of a, well, drag (the action can be
can be a strain for those with arthritis
or RSI). Ticking ‘Turn on ClickFock’
lets you select an item, then long-press
it (you’ll now see a small square below
your cursor). Now move your cursor to
where you want to move that item,
then click your mouse.
profile picture you’ve chosen for your
Microsoft (Hotmail or Outlook) account.
There’s an easy way to change the picture
that displays on your PC, though the
method varies slightly depending on the
version of Windows.
In Windows 7, open the Start menu,
click your profile picture at the top
right, then click ‘Change your picture’.
You can choose from a list of graphical
icons or click ‘Browse for more pictures’
at the bottom, navigate to the photo on
your PC that you want to use, click Open,
then Change Picture.
In Windows 8.1, click your account
name at the top right of the Modern
tile interface, then click ‘Change account
picture’. Now click Browse and add a
picture from your PC or click Camera
to take a photo using your PC’s front
camera. In Windows 10, open the Start
menu, click your account name at the top
left, then click ‘Change account settings’.
Now follow the steps we outlined for
Windows 8.1.
46 15-28 April 2015
Make Office Better
Expert tips for every program
OUTLOOK
Create a separate folder for emails with attachments
There’s a fairly straightforward
way to create a dedicated folder
for emails with attachments. You
can then quickly move all your emails
with attachments to it and set up
Outlook so that all future emails with
attachments go directly to that folder.
Click the Folder tab at the top, then
New Folder at the top left. Name it
Attachments (or similar), select your
email account at the top, then click OK.
The folder will now be added to your list
of email folders in the left-hand panel
(along with Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items
and so on).
Now click any email containing an
attachment in your inbox. Click the
Home tab, then the Rules dropdown menu (in the Move
section). Next, click Create Rule, then Advanced Options
Jp . I
at
the bottom right. You’ll see a list of
different email rules you can tick. Tick
the ‘which has an attachment’ rule,
then click Next.
Now tick ‘move it to the specified
folder’, then click the ‘specified’ link in
the box below, select the Attachments
folder you created (see screenshot right),
click OK, then click Next twice. Now give
this rule a name (such as Attachments
Rule), tick both the boxes below -
‘Run this rule now on messages already
in ‘Inbox” and ‘Turn on this rule’, then
click Finish.
Now all your current emails that contain
attachments will move from your inbox to
your Attachments folder, and any new
emails you receive that contain attachments will
automatically appear within this folder.
EXCEL
Represent your values with
coloured bars
It can be difficult to present a
useful visual comparison of
numerical data without resorting
to filters in some way, and thereby
changing its format. The best way of
doing this without disrupting your data
is to use Data Bars in Excel’s powerful
Conditional Formatting option.
This lets you represent each value as a
bar within its cell. In the cell with the
highest value, the bar will fill 100 per
cent of the cell (see the 2400 green bar at
the bottom of the screenshot below). All
other (lesser) values will be represented
by bars whose length is based on how
they compare to the highest-value bar.
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To do this, highlight the values you
want to represent as data bars. Next, click
the Conditional Formatting dropdown
menu (in the Styles section of the Home
tab), then move your cursor to Data Bars.
You’ll see two sections: Gradient Fill and
Solid Fill, with a choice of colours. The
first adds a colour spectrum to the bar,
while the second adds a uniform colour.
Move your cursor to one of the options to
preview how your cells will look, then
click the one you want.
If you want to remove this formatting
later, simply highlight the formatted
cells, click the Conditional Formatting
dropdown menu, move your cursor to
Clear Rules and click ‘Clear Rules from
Selected Cells’.
OFFICE
Access earlier versions
of your file
□ Did you know that Windows
saves copies of all older versions
of your Office files and documents?
This lets you, for the sake of comparison,
open an older version of a document
alongside the current one, and even lets
you restore your current file to one of its
previous versions.
These versions are automatically
created by Office whenever you update
a file or when Windows creates restore
points of your PC, for example.
To see older versions of any Word,
Excel or PowerPoint file, right-click
the file’s icon, then click Properties.
Now click the Previous Versions tab to
see all older versions listed in categories
(based on when they were last modified
- Yesterday, ‘Earlier this week’, and so
on). Click any previous version, then
Open or Restore (depending on what
you want to do).
WORD
Quickly save all images in a
document to your PC
J You may have been sent a Word
document with a number of
images within it and would like
to save them to your PC. There are a
number of ways you can do this. The
most common is to right-click each
image, click ‘Save as Picture’, name the
image then save it. But this can take ages
if there are a lot of images.
Instead, to save all the images in one go,
open the document, click File at the top
left, then Save As. Now select where you
want to save the file on your PC and
name it. Next, click the ‘Save as type’
dropdown menu, select Web Page, then
click Save. This will create a new folder
called ‘Doc_files’ (where ‘Doc’ is the
name you chose) in the location you
specified containing all the images in
their original format.
15 -28 April 2015 47
Secret Tips For. . .
Blend images, resize them and
get tons of free extras for this
great online photo editor
Download Pixlr to your PC
Pixlr.com hosts a number of online
image-editing tools that you can use
within your web browser for free - Pixlr
Express (apps.pixlr.com/express) is ideal
for quick fixes, Pixlr Editor (apps.pixlr.
com/editor) is a more serious Photoshop-
like image editor, and Pixlr-o-matic
(apps.pixlr.com/o-matic) is a fun tool for
adding filters and effects.
But did you know you can also
download Pixlr to your PC and use it
offline, too? Go to http://pixlr.com and
click Desktop, then Download. You’ll
need to set up a Pixlr account to
download the program, but this is free
(and unlocks some great additional
features - see the next tip). Double-click
the downloaded file and follow the
steps to install.
A Desktop version of Pixlr-o-matic is
also available as a separate download
(www.snipca.com/16030). You’ll need
Adobe Air to run this, but you’ll be
prompted to install it if you don’t already
have it. Chrome users can install a free
Pixlr Touch Up app from www.snipca.
com/16021, and you can also get free
Pixlr mobile apps for Android (www
snipca.com/16032) and iOS (www.
snipca.com/16031) .
Pixlr’ s free web apps are great, but
if there’s one slight irritation it’s the
fact that Pixlr Editor, Pixlr-o-matic
and Pixlr Express all feature large
adverts prominently on the right-hand
side of their respective interfaces.
Use Adblock Plus to replace distracting
adverts with a white space
Sign in and get more
features for free
Subscribing to Pixlr’ s Pro membership
unlocks advanced features for the
Desktop and mobile versions, including
enhanced colour channels. But you don’t
have to pay the (£1.35) monthly fee to get
more from Pixlr. Sign into the Desktop
program with the free account (known as
Essentials membership) you set up when
you downloaded it and you’ll unlock lots
of great extras, including new effects
packs and creative tools - all for free.
Click Membership, then Sign-in and
enter your details. You’ll see some of the
tools on the left are now adorned with
pink ribbons, denoting free ‘gifts’ for
account holders. Eor example, Pixlr has
Sign into the Desktop version of Pixlr to get
loads of free tools (marked with pink ribbons)
That’s because Pixlr’ s free online
tools are ad-supported. Currently,
there’s no way to turn them off, even
if you’ve paid for a Pro membership.
There’s one simple solution, though -
using a basic ad-blocker extension for
your web browser you can eradicate
the adverts altogether.
In the screenshot left, we’ve
used Adblock Plus for Chrome (www.
snipca. com/16027), but most other
ad-blockers will work too. Annoyingly,
you still won’t get a full-screen
editing experience (there’ll be a large
block of white space where the advert
was), but at least it’s much less
off-putting.
just released a great new Mermaid filter
pack, which adds sparkling effects
(known as ‘bokeh’) to your images.
Cut out objects without hassle
If you’re cutting out an object from one
image to paste into another - for a
collage, say - you can use Pixlr Editor’s
lasso tool to select it. But if you don’t
want the hassle of precisely tracing
around the edges of an object, you could
use this simple trick, which also creates a
pleasing blending effect for your collage.
Go to apps.pixlr.com/editor and
open two images - one with the object
to cut out and one for your background.
Click the first image, then the lasso icon
in the Tools palette. In the toolbar, make
sure the Ereehand Lasso is selected,
then click the dropdown menu next to
Leather and drag the slider to around the
28 mark. Ensure the Anti- alias box is
ticked, then draw a rough outline
around the outer edge of your object.
Click Edit, then Copy.
Now switch to your background image,
then click Edit and Paste. Your cut-out
object will appear with an attractive
fade-out border around the edges. You
can experiment with the Leather levels
and how you draw the outline - tracing
just inside the edges of your object, for
example, can have a pleasing effect too.
Resize objects without
distorting them
Have you ever resized an image only to
find that it looks squashed or stretched?
If so, there’s a simple trick that can prevent
this. Let’s say you’ve added an object to a
background image in Pixlr Editor (see
above). You can resize it by clicking Edit,
then ‘Eree transform’. A selection box
will appear around the object. Instead of
clicking and dragging to change the
object’s dimensions, however, hold down
the Shift key, then click one of the corner
anchor points and drag inward to shrink
or outward to enlarge. Doing so will
resize your picture without affecting its
relative dimensions. This essential
resizing trick works in many other
programs too, including Word.
Banish adverts from Pixlr.com
48 15 -28 April 2015
Next issue Secret Tips For... Firefox
What's All the Fuss About,..
Solid-state batteries
The 'holy grail' of batteries could lead to thinner devices that last
much, much longer when charged
What are they?
A new type of rechargeable battery that
lasts twice as long as traditional lithium-
ion batteries, currently found in most
phones, tablets and laptops. Any device
powered by a solid-state battery will last
much longer between charges. They’re
cheaper to make and are thinner too,
which should lead to lighter devices.
Are they similar
to solid-state drives?
Yes, in the sense that neither have any
moving parts. As we explained in Issue
443, solid-state drives use flash memory to
store and read data, unlike traditional hard
drives which use spinning platters and
needle-like heads. Solid-state batteries are
similarly revolutionary because they use
solid lithium electrodes, rather than the
liquid mix of chemicals found in current
batteries, which store current and release
it when needed. This makes solid-state
batteries safer, and capable of holding
more power in a smaller space. And
because they don’t contain liquid, they
can be made into any shape, meaning they
could power a wide range of devices, not
just phones and tablets.
Solid-state technology has been around
longer than you think. The first such
device was the cat’s-whisker detector
(www.snipca.com/15871), invented in 1906
and used in early 20th-century radios.
What's wrong with lithium-ion
batteries?
What’s right with
them, you mean. They
contain flammable
liquid electrol 3 Te, which
can cause products to
overheat. This happened
to millions of Sony VAIO
laptops in 2006 and 2008,
forcing the company to
recall them from sale. It
has even been suggested
that an explosion of
onboard lithium-ion batteries led to the
disappearance of flight MH370 last year.
They are also bulky, are prone to
leaking, and have barely improved since
Sony introduced them in 1991. Advances
in battery technology haven’t kept pace
with the progress of computing, severely
limiting the power of devices.
Why are they
making news now?
Because Sir James Dyson, inventor of the
bagless vacuum cleaner, has invested
£15m in a company that makes them - the
Michigan-based Sakti3 (http : //sakti3 . com) .
Dyson thinks they will prove as important
an innovation as his company’s vacuum
cleaners. Mark Taylor,
the company’s head of
research and development,
says that they “are a bit
of a holy grail”, and has
called Sakti3’s technology
“world-beating”. Ann
Marie Sastry who founded
Sakti3 in 2007, said that
Sir James Dyson has invested
£15m in a company that
makes solid-state batteries
Dyson’s money will help her company
bring the batteries to market.
Which products will have
solid-state batteries first?
Dyson’s investment means its products
will be the first to be powered by solid-
state batteries, probably in new versions of
its cordless vacuum cleaners, replacing the
lithium-ion batteries that currently power
them. But Taylor admits the technology
is “a few years” away from appearing in
any of the company’s products. Eventually
experts expect solid-state batteries to
power anything that needs charging.
What else could
they be used for?
Car companies such as General Motors,
which has also invested in Sakti3, are
excited because solid-state batteries could
allow electric cars to be driven over 600
miles between charges, enough to go
from London to Aberdeen. At the moment
they can only manage 300 miles, and
recharging takes over an hour. At the
current rate of progress, it’s clear that the
benefits of solid-state batteries will stretch
beyond vacuum cleaners.
15 -28 April 2015 49
TV&FUVI
FROM THE WEB
Jane Hoskyn shows you where to find your old favourites online
and how to save them for watching in comfort
R emember the first time you
set the video to record a TV
programme? VHS felt
revolutionary (and a bit
naughty) because it let you watch your
favourite programmes when you
wanted to, instead of when Auntie Beeb
or ITV wanted you to. You no longer
had to choose between going out or
watching Doctor Who. Even better (or
naughtier), you could watch it over and
KEY POINTS
• Record streaming video to watch
when you want
• Download YouTube videos safely using
software you've already got
• Find TV clips and entire series you
haven't seen for decades
• Discover the web's hidden vintage
video gems
over again at your leisure.
Then the internet came along,
with its streaming video services like
YouTube and the BBC’s iPlayer, and
you could watch what you wanted, when
you wanted, where you wanted. You
could search for an old favourite on
YouTube and there it was, as clear
(well, as fuzzy) as it was in the corner
of your parents’ living room all those
years ago.
Keep lost treasures
There’s a sizeable snag to internet video
- it doesn’t belong to you. Whoever
uploaded the video can remove it as
well. Content on broadcasters’ sites,
like iPlayer and the excellent TCM site
(Turner Classic Movies, www.tcm.com),
is available for a limited time period,
usually between one and three months.
Then there’s the buffering problem.
Unless your broadband is particularly
smooth and fast, streaming video is a
stop-and- start affair. The iPlayer’ s
built-in downloads tool lets you save
shows to watch offline, but only for 30
days. After that, the file self-destructs.
So Auntie Beeb is still telling you what
you can and can’t do, even though you
pay her upwards of £145 a year for
your licence.
Here, we’ll show you how to save your
long-lost favourite TV shows and films for
as long as you want. We’ll reveal which
video-downloading tools actually work,
and explain how to record video as it
plays on your screen. We’ll also outline
the legal rights and wrongs of capturing
online broadcasts.
Once that’s out of the way, we can
move on to the fun stuff. We’ll take you
on a journey through the internet’s video
vaults, showing you where and how to
find lost classics before picking out our
favourite hidden gems.
50 15 -28 April 2015
RECORD TV SHOWS AND FILMS FROM THE WEB
Record online video for free
Frame a video on your screen then click Rec to capture it using Any Video Recorder
Screen-recording is the direct digital
descendant of VHS. You simply record
what’s playing or broadcasting on your
PC’s screen, then save it as a video file to
watch when you want.
The very best tool for the job, Camtasia
(wwwsnipca.com/15918), costs more
than your first video recorder (£236.45
inc VAT, to be precise). You can buy a
new iPad Mini 2 for less (www.snipca.
com/15926). Fortunately, Camtasia has a
more affordable little sister, Snagit (www
snipca.com/15919, £39.50; free 15-day
trial) . If you become very keen on
screen-recording and want excellent
results, Snagit won’t disappoint.
There are free alternatives, but most
force you to compromise on recording
time, ling (www.snipca.com/1592l)
records great-quality video, but only
up to five minutes in length. Screenr
(www.screenr.com) also lets you record
up to five minutes and works entirely in
your browser, without the need to
download anything.
To record without time restrictions,
use the free program Any Video Recorder
(AVR, www.any-video-recorder.com).
You can use it to record anything that
moves, as long as it’s on your PC’s
screen: YouTube videos, iPlayer
broadcasts, Netflix shows and any TV
or film gems you find.
AVR lets you select an area of your
screen to record (useful if you want to
carry on working in a different window) ,
then automatically saves the recording to
your hard drive as a good-quality MP4
video file.
AVR’s website has a strong hint of “too
good to be true” and we braced ourselves
for a truckload of adware in the installer,
but there were no extras to opt out of at
all. The installer correctly predicted that
we’d see a Windows Security warning
and assured us it was safe, so we clicked
‘Install this driver software anyway’ and
didn’t encounter any problems.
When the program opens, give it a test
WHY YOU SHOULDN'T USE C AMSTUDIO
The best-known
free Camtasia
alternative,
CamStudio, is
worse than useless.
In Issue 443's
Cover Feature, we
revealed that this
screen-recording
tool installs adware on your PC, with no
chance to opt out. Software listings site
Alternative To (http://alternativeto.net)
has now removed CamStudio from its
database and flagged it as malware, citing
a damning safety report from VirusTotal
(www.virustotal.com, see screenshot).
CamStudio is not a lone offender. Online
video recording is a security minefield.
Video software is expensive to make, so
free programs are
often funded by
bundled adware,
and extensions are
easy for hackers
to embed with
malware.
If you find a
new, free video-
recording tool that you're determined to
try, upload its installer (usually an EXE file)
to VirusTotal before you attempt to run it.
VirusTotal will tell you if any antivirus has
flagged the file as malware. Make sure
your antivirus software is updated and
enabled, and have the latest version of
AdwCleaner (www.snipca.com/15925)
saved to your Desktop to remove any
nasties that do sneak into your system.
; RHV UmCQ RECORDEII
0&
Any Video Recorder is the easiest tool for
recording video as it plays on your Desktop
run by clicking the Record Now button.
Your Desktop may disappear for a
moment, which is a bit scary, but it will
come back. Click Manual in the little blue
window that appears. There’s an
automatic option that tries to detect any
video playing on your screen, but it
doesn’t seem to work - at least not reliably.
After a couple of moments a red square
will appear on your screen. Drag it to fit
round the video you want to record,
input a time limit if you want, then click
the Rec button. You can also start and
stop recording by pressing Ctrl+F7. When
you press Stop, AVR processes and saves
the MP4 to your chosen folder, which
opens automatically in Windows (File)
Explorer. Click it to play it in your default
video player, or copy it to your tablet or
laptop to watch while out and about.
If you want to crop or trim your
recording, we recommend the excellent
free online video editor We Video (https://
www.wevideo.com). You can also convert
15 -28 April 2015 51
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Use a hidden feature in VLC to safely download YouTube videos
your MP4s and other video files to
alternative formats using We Video.
Download YouTube videos
safely using VLC
The best place to find classic clips and
shows is YouTube, the web’s biggest video
site (in fact it’s the third-most visited site
of all, behind Google and Facebook). But
YouTube is designed for watching videos
online, not for saving them to watch
offline, and its owner Google cracks
down hard on attempts to get around
this. That’s why most of the “YouTube
downloader” extensions you’ll find
online don’t work, and many are unsafe.
Fortunately, there’s no need to use
them. You can either record YouTube
videos as they play using Any Video
Recorder, or you can download them
using a hidden tool in our favourite
media player, VLC (www.snipca.
com/15928, see Best Free Software,
Issue 446).
Downloading is more hit and miss than
screen-recording, and in our experience
it doesn’t work with all online videos. But
it does work with most YouTube videos,
and it frees you from the need to play a
video while you capture it.
First, go to YouTube and find a video
you want to save, then copy its URL to
your clipboard. Open VLC and click
Media, then Open Network Stream. Paste
the URL into the
box and click Play.
Your YouTube
video will now
start playing
in VLC.
That’s impressive
enough, but here’s
where it really gets
clever. Click
Tools, then Codec
Information (see
screenshot above)
and, in the box that
opens, right-click
the long line of text
in the Location box at the bottom and
choose Select All. Press Ctrl+C to copy
the text, then paste it into your browser’s
address bar. When you press Enter, the
video will open in YouTube’s server.
Right-click the video as it plays and
select ‘Save Video as’ (see screenshot
left), then choose a location on your
hard drive to download the file to.
Type a name (say, quatermass) into
the ‘File name’ box (where it says
‘videoplayback’ by default), followed
by .mp4 (so in our example, the whole
thing would read ‘quatermass. mp4’).
If you don’t include the file extension
as well, the exported file will not
work. Press Save, and the file will
download. Click to play it in your
default video player.
GET YOUTUBE CLASSICS ON LASERDISC*
*Sadly not. This was one of YouTube's better April Fool's Day jokes.
On 1 April 2012, the site's visitors were greeted with a little DVD
icon next to the main YouTube logo, and if they clicked the icon, up
popped a promotional video for a new (and entirely fictitious) service
called The YouTube Collection. Lucky users of this service could
order any YouTube video for home delivery on DVD, VHS, Betamax
and even Laserdisc, then enjoy "the complete YouTube experience
completely offline".
Sadly, the spoof never became reality, but we hope you
can get a little closer to that "experience" using the tips and
tools in this feature.
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52 15 -28 April 2015
FIND THE WEB'S BEST CLASSIC TV SHOWS AND FILMS
Find classic shows in
seconds on YouTube
Now we’ve dealt with the technical
stuff, we can move on to the fun part:
watching telly. YouTube is still the
first place we turn to for video clips,
and its search engine is as powerful
as you’d expect from a site that’s
been owned by Google since 2006.
It’s really good for finding clips and
entire episodes of a programme when
you can’t quite remember the full
name. For example, type dixon dock
into the search box, and YouTube
instantly offers a wealth of content
from vintage police drama Dixon of
Dock Green, including the first and
second episodes in full, the opening
credits, the closing credits and an
audio track of the theme (and that’s
just the first page of results - see
screenshot right).
Narrow your search by clicking the
Filters button at the top-left and
clicking filters such as ‘Subtitles/CC’
(only see videos with closed-caption
subtitles), ‘Long (> 20 minutes)’ (videos
longer than 20 minutes; ideal for finding
full episodes), and Programme (videos
whose uploader has marked them as
TV programmes).
To find whole series or groups of clips,
use the Playlist filter. Type your search
term, click Filters, then Playlist. For
example, our ‘dixon dock’ search found
playlists containing several Dixon of Dock
Green episodes; a ‘crime drama’ playlist
containing 16 episodes of various series
(www.snipca.com/15944), including the
original Dragnet and Z Gars; and a
playlist of TV shows starring PC George
Dixon himself, actor Jack Warner
(www.snipca.com/15945) .
In most cases, you won’t have to
record or download a YouTube video
to watch it again later. There’s every
chance it’ll still be there in a week, a
month or a year. You can save videos to
a Watch List by clicking the little clock
icon under the player. You can also
save entire playlists by clicking the ‘ + ’
symbol at the top right of the playlist
player. Find your Watch Later list and
saved playlists by clicking the three
horizontal lines next to the YouTube
logo whenever you’re signed into
your account.
However, YouTube videos can (and
do) get taken off the site, either by
YouTube or by the person who
YouTube and its search filters will even help you find
TV shows whose full titles you can't remember
uploaded them. So if you record your
favourites and save them to your hard
drive, you’ll know you can watch them
whenever you want - and without the
need for an internet connection.
What to record: 176 Monty Python
sketches in one playlist (www.snipca.
com/15922 - see screenshot above right).
For more comedy gold, search for
‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ to find plenty of
TV and radio episodes from East Cheam’s
finest. Britain’s greatest ever comedy duos
- Morecambe and Wise and The Two
Ronnies - also crop up a lot on YouTube,
with Christmas specials in full and classic
sketches (‘Four candles’, Andre Previn
etc). You’ll even find some of Morecambe
and Wise’s films from the 1960s, including
the spy spoof The Intelligence Men.
Watch the first episode of Steptoe and Son on The
Internet Archive, and download it for free
Watch hundreds of clips from a specific series
or genre using YouTube's Playlist filter
Download vintage TV from
The Internet Archive
In our Cover Feature in Issue 440
(‘What you must Download in 2015’),
we shared our love for The Internet
Archive (https://archive.org), an
incredible resource of TV shows, films,
audio clips and even computer games
that are old enough to be out of
copyright. Because of their licence-free
status, you don’t have to use third-party
tools to record them - you can simply
download them straight from the Internet
Archive website, all for free.
The site is US-based, so its Television
section (www.snipca.com/15946) has a
distinctly American flavour, with
transatlantic treats including The Three
Stooges and You Bet Your Life, the
legendary quiz show presented by
Groucho Marx. Click a video to view it,
and click ‘MPEG4’ at the bottom right of
the player to download it in MP4 format.
To focus on home-grown content,
click the British tag in the right-hand list
(or go straight here: www.snipca.com/
15947) and browse the results. Here we
found classic episodes of Goronation
Street (www.snipca.com/15939). The
Avengers (www.snipca.com/15949)
and Armchair Theatre (www.snipca.
com/15948), all with free download
links below the player.
To continue browsing, click
the tags (blue links) below the video-
player window. The site isn’t as well
organised as YouTube, and the search
tool is less powerful, but that actually
makes it more fun to explore. Sometimes
you uncover the best gems when you
didn’t know you were looking for them.
What to download: The first episode of
perhaps the best sitcom of all time,
Steptoe and Son (www.snipca.com/
15938). There are also episodes from
the chilling 1950s sci-fi classic
Quatermass and the Pit
►
15 -28 April 2015 53
Got too many
issues cluttering
up your home?
Save space by buying our 2014 Back
on AM oa iooi
You can buy the CD now on Amazon at
www.snipca.com/14981, or by typing
computeractive cd into Amazon’s search box
Collect classic
Doctor Who episodes
As we mentioned, the BBC keeps a tight
rein on its content. The corporation’s
golden goose, Doctor Who, is particularly
well guarded, and you won’t find any
classic episodes on the iPlayer.
YouTube has plenty of Doctor Who
clips (such as Jon Pertwee’s regeneration
into Tom Baker: wwwsnipca.com/
15950), but full episodes tend to get
quickly removed following copyright
requests. The Internet Archive has free
downloadable Doctor Who audio clips,
comics and ebooks (www.snipca.
com/15955), but no episodes.
What’s a Who fan to do? Go to Hell’s
Library (www.snipca.com/15936). Here,
you’ll find a link to nearly every episode
of the ‘classic’ (20th century) Doctor
Who, most of them uploaded by fans -
and plenty of non-Doctor Who content,
too. Most links open automatically in
Google Docs (https://docs.google.com),
where you can play the video in your
browser or click the Download arrow at
the top of the window to save the file.
The Hell’s Library FAQ (www.snipca.
com/15952) recommends saving files
as MP4 and playing them in VLC for
offline viewing.
The Doctor Who ‘reboot’ (21st century
series) is all currently available on Netflix
(www.snipca.com/15953, £5.99 a month)
but the classic series is not. We found
classic episodes on Amazon Instant Video
(www.snipca. com/16004), but again
they’re not free. Most cost £1.89, with a
series costing £5.99.
The best-quality source of classic
Doctor Who episodes is US streaming site
Download classic Doctor Who episodes in Google Docs by clicking the arrow at the top
Hulu (www.snipca.com/15932). However,
to use it, you’ll have to pay a subscription
($7.99 a month, around £5.40) and
pretend you have a US IP address by
using the free Chrome extension Hola
(www.snipca.com/15933). To find out
more about beating internet restrictions
by using Hola and other tools that
disguise your location, see our Cover
Feature in Issue 441.
Whatever geographical tricks you pull,
you won’t be able to download episodes
from Netflix, Amazon or Hulu using any
built-in tools. You pay to watch them
online only. The only way to keep them is
to use a screen recorder.
What to record: Watch and download
the first Doctor Who episode, ‘An
Unearthly Child’, from Hell’s Library
You can see all the original Doctor Who on
Hulu, but you'll need a subscription and a
proxy IP address
(www.snipca.com/15936). For just over a
fiver, you can watch the whole classic 1973
series ‘The Time Warrior’, with Jon Pertwee,
on Amazon (www.snipca.com/15954).
And for a special treat, here are 707
Doctor Who episodes playing at the
same time (www.snipca.com/15935).
IS IT LEGAL TO RECORD ONLINE TV?
In short, yes - as long as you're
recording it for your own private
use. UK copyright law currently
lets you make a copy of an online
broadcast, as long as you do so in
your own home to watch at a more
convenient time. The same is true
whether you're recording to VHS
or a hard drive.
You need a valid TV Licence to
record or watch shows as they're
being shown on TV, regardless of
what channel they're on, according
to the TV Licensing website (www.
snipca.com/15958). You don't
currently need a licence to watch or
record time-shifted content.
But while recording web video
is within legal boundaries, sharing
your recordings is not. Don't
make copies for your friends or
for YouTube, and don't even think
about selling them - that s piracy.
For more on content theft and its
grey areas, see Fact UK (www.
snipca.com/15959).
Be aware that a website's own
terms and conditions may be more
strict than the letter of the law, and
some may prohibit recording or
downloading of their video streams.
Keep doing it (that is, keep being
caught doing it), and you may find
your account is deleted.
TV lk:ensihC
programmes as they're broadcast
►
15 -28 April 2015 55
Save classic films and
find lost treasures
Unless you happen to have your very own
cinema down the back of the garden, the
best place to watch full-length films for
free is Black And White Movies (www
bnwmovies.com). Click a thumbnail to
choose a genre (such as Animation, War,
Western or Classic), then click a film’s
thumbnail to watch it using the built-in
player, which has a full-screen mode.
Films rated highest by users are listed at
the top, with the brilliant courtroom
drama 12 Angry Men (www.snipca.
com/15968) leading the pack.
You can download films for free using
Black And White Movies, but the process
is trickier than with The Internet Archive.
Click the little red download button a few
lines below the player, then right-click
one of the links (go for the one ending
‘.mp4’ if available), click Save As and
save the video file to your computer.
Alternatively, use a screen recorder.
The Internet Archive has a smaller
selection of films. Go to the site’s Feature
Films section (www.snipca.com/15960)
for classics including the Cary Grant
newspaper comedy His Girl Friday
(www.snipca.com/15962) and more
obscure gems such as West of Hot Dog
(www.snipca.com/15963 - see screenshot
below), a silent western that Stan Laurel
1 ^ 35 '
^ ^ '
mj
WATCH FULL MOVIE
AT THE UNKIN THE DESCRIPTION
JUt
Some LAe n Full M«vl«
mi*
4 r
Some Like It Not: be aware that full-length films on YouTube are not always genuine
Find lost treasures like Stan Laurel's early silent film West of
Hot Dog on The Internet Archive
made before he teamed up with
Oliver Hardy.
For more recent blockbusters like
The Godfather you’ll need a more
conventional source such as TCM
(www.tcm.com/watchtcm). The
channel’s website makes films
available to view online for around a
month after they’ve been shown on
TV, so the selection is changing all the
time. Streaming quality is superb.
YouTube has plenty of full-length
films to watch for free. Tread carefully,
though, because they’re not always
what they seem. When
we searched YouTube for
Some Like It Hot and
clicked ‘Some Like It Hot
Full Movie’ (complete with
reassuring ‘1:40:07’
timestamp), there was no
video of the film - just a
gaudy row of arrows and
a link to a nameless “movie
downloads” site (see
screenshot above). There
is plenty of good-quality
film content on YouTube,
but do be aware of these
occasional scams.
An inescapable problem
with recording and
* ^ y i i f I W ' r^*'
i
Download classics like 72 Angry Men for free
from Black And White Movies
downloading films is they devour hard-
drive space. Even a relatively short feature
like Laurel and Hardy’s The Flying
Deuces, free to download from The
Internet Archive (www.snipca.
com/15961), is a 1.5GB file. So we’d
recommend investing in an external hard
drive and saving your recordings to that
to avoid clogging up your PC.
What to watch: If you’re in a serious
mood, watch the stunning silent classic
Battleship Potemkin (www.snipca.
com/15964). If you’re not, join Charlie
Chaplin for Twenty Minutes of Love
(www.snipca.com/15965). IS
NEXT ISSUE On sale Wednesday 29 April
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WITHOUT DOWNLOADING
ANYTHING
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Subscribe to Computeractive at www.getcomputeractive.co.uk
56 15 -28 April 2015
Things to do with
an old XP PC [“
Iar^ Create a home I /
entertainment centre •
This issue, Jonathan Parky n shows you
how to convert your old XP PC into a
music, video and photo player
Set a suitable screen resolution for your TV
Connect your PC to your TV
One great way to repurpose your PC
is to turn it into an all-in-one media
centre that’s connected to your
living-room TV. By far the easiest
(and cheapest) way to connect the PC
and TV is via HDMI cable. Modern
TV sets come with multiple HDMI
sockets and, if you’re lucky enough
to have a PC with an HDMI output,
then all that’s needed is a £3 HDMI
cable, which will carry sound as
well as picture. There are plenty on
Amazon (www.snipca.com/15889).
Annoyingly, Windows XP
computers tend to pre-date HDMI, so
it’s more likely that your old PC uses
either VGA or DVI (or both) for its
video output. It’s possible to buy a
DVI-to-HDMI cable or adapter (www.
snipca. com/15890), but DVI doesn’t
carry sound.
Some TVs offer a VGA connection
(sometimes labelled ‘RGB’ or ‘PC’), often
with a separate socket for audio. If yours
does, connect your PC’s video output via
a VGA cable, then use a male-to-male
3.5mm mini jack cable (like this: www
snipca.com/1589l) to connect the speaker
or headphone socket on your PC to the
audio input your TV.
Another option is to get a converter
box that lets you connect DVI and
audio separately from your PC to a single
HDMI socket on your TV, but they can
be pricey (this one is £60: www. snipca.
com/15876).
See your PCs screen on your TV
Once the connection is made, turn
on your PC and switch your TV to the
appropriate input. If the image appears
distorted, you’ll need to adjust the
computer’s resolution settings. Right-
click the Desktop, select Properties, then
click Settings and move the slider until
the resolution suits your screen.
If your TV and PC aren’t recognising
each other, switch off your PC before
making the connection, then try again.
If that still doesn’t work, you may need
to connect your PC to its old monitor
(or use the built-in screen on a laptop)
and set a suitable resolution before
reconnecting to the TV.
If you want to control your computer
from your sofa, a keyboard and mouse
won’t be the most convenient option,
especially if they’re not wireless. Instead,
get a remote control handset like this
excellent infrared PC remote control
(£3.59, www.snipca.com/15877; XP
and Vista only).
Install free photo and video
software
Windows Media Player (WMP) is
fine for playing music, but to watch
video you’re better off with VLC
(www.snipca.com/15892), which
supports a huge range of video
and audio file formats, plus DVDs,
CDs and even VCDs (see Best Free
Software, Issue 446).
VLC still works on XP, but you
should download it using a Windows
7 or 8/8.1 PC (which is much safer
for going online) then save the
EXE installation file to a USB stick
and transfer it to your old XP PC.
Similarly, XP’s built-in photo
viewer has always been a bit lacking,
but Google’s free photo tool Picasa
(http://picasa.google.co.uk) still supports
XP. Given the dangers of going online
using XP, you won’t be able to use
Picasa’ s web features, but you can still
use its Desktop tools to organise your
photos and play slideshows.
Alternatively, install a media-centre
program for playing your music,
photos, movies and DVDs all from one
place. Open-source program Kodi
(http://kodi.tv) would be our choice
if it still supported XP. Happily, you
can get an XP-compatible version of
Kodi’s forerunner, XBMC, for free
(www.snipca.com/15878). As with
VLC, download it using another PC,
then transfer and install it on your
XP computer.
15 -28 April 2015 57
Never miss
another
security
update
Security updates protect you from the latest
malware and hacking attacks. Jonathan Parkyn
explains how to be first in the queue for new fixes
S oftware updates are a pain, but
they’re a necessary evil. Besides
allowing developers to fix bugs
and add features, they plug
(‘patch’) security holes.
As demonstrated by the recent Freak
flaw (see News, Issue 445), fresh
vulnerabilities are discovered all the time.
To make sure you’re protected from them,
you need to get the latest software
updates as soon as they’re issued.
This is easier said than done. Microsoft
hasn’t helped matters by “evolving” its
Advanced Notification Service (www
snipca.com/15893). Until January 2015,
the service provided vital information
about forthcoming fixes to all Windows
users - but this is now sent to paying
customers only. The good news is there
are plenty of other ways to hear about the
latest updates for your PC, tablet and
phone as soon as they’re released, and
even get them installed automatically.
Scan your software for
missing updates
Virtually all the programs installed on
your PC - from your browser to your
email program - are potentially
vulnerable. Some programs include
an option to check for updates
automatically, which you can usually
find in the Options, Preferences or About
menu. For example, most modern web
browsers apply security patches and
other updates automatically.
But to make sure you’re getting the
latest updates for all your programs.
install a dedicated update scanner. Patch
My PC (www.snipca.com/15894) is a
great free program that checks the
software on your PC and alerts you to
any out-of-date versions by flagging them
in red text (see screenshot below left).
Better still, you can install any updates
that are available with a single click of
the Perform Updates button.
Patch My PC doesn’t cover all programs,
but it will help you keep more than 100
of the most commonly exploited third-
party programs and plug-ins on your PC
updated safely, including Java, Flash,
QuickTime and Adobe Reader.
We also recommend Secunia PSI
(www.snipca.com/15885), which is free
and can be set to install most program
updates automatically, including several
not covered by Patch My PC.
Get Windows patches
automatically
The Advanced Notification Service may
be a thing of the past for most of us
non-payers, but Microsoft hasn’t stopped
releasing software updates. It still issues
updates (‘security bulletins’) for Windows
on Patch Tuesday, which is usually the
second Tuesday of every month, though
sometimes it’s the fourth Tuesday. Here’s
a list of the most recent security bulletins:
www.snipca.com/15895 (note that
Microsoft writes dates in that annoying
American way, putting the month first -
so ‘3/10/2015’ means 10 March).
As long as your PC is set to download
and install updates automatically, you’ll
get them without having to do anything.
Use an update scanner like Patch My PC to check for out-of-date programs
58 15 -28 April 2015
Check for help using the Windows Update
Troubleshooter
Sometimes you may need to restart
your PC in order to complete the
installation process, though, so look
out for notifications and restart as soon
as it’s convenient.
To check you’re receiving Windows
updates automatically, open the Control
Panel, click ‘System and Security’,
Windows Update, then ‘Change settings’.
Make sure ‘Install updates automatically
(recommended)’ is selected under
‘Important updates’ and that ‘Give me
recommended updates the same way I
receive important updates’ is ticked.
Unfortunately, Windows Update
doesn’t always work as it should, and
some updates may not be installed
automatically. To check whether anything
has slipped through the net, go to
Windows Update and click ‘Check for
updates’, then install any that are listed as
available. If an update still fails to install,
or if you’re experiencing any other
trouble with Windows Update, use the
free Windows Update Automated
Troubleshooter (www.snipca.com/15884,
click ‘Run now’ in the blue box).
You can also check for problems with
specific updates. Go to Windows Update,
click ‘View update history’ and then look
for an update that’s listed as Failed.
Right-click it and select ‘View details’.
You should see an error code. Click ‘Get
help with this error’ or type the code into
Google to see if there’s a fix.
Never miss another Office patch
Last year a massive vulnerability was
discovered in Word that could potentially
let hackers take control of your PC using
remote code execution (www.snipca.
com/15899).
Microsoft quickly released a patch,
but unless you’re running Office 365
the update may not have been installed.
This is because other versions of Office
(the ones most of us use) don’t receive
patches and updates automatically via
Windows Update. To ensure you get
Office patches as soon as they’re
released, tweak your Windows
Update settings.
Never miss another security update
In Windows 8/8.1, press Win+C and
click Settings, ‘Change PC settings’,
‘Update and recovery’, Windows Update
and then ‘Choose how updates get
installed’. Make sure ‘Give me updates for
other Microsoft products when I update
Windows’ is ticked.
In Windows 7, open Windows
Update. If you see a message saying
‘Get updates for other Microsoft
products’, it means you’re only receiving
updates for your operating system (OS)
and not for other Microsoft products like
Office. Click ‘Find out more’ and follow
the instructions. If this doesn’t work
(and we’ve noticed it doesn’t always),
try this workaround: install Microsoft’s
Silverlight plug-in (wwwmicrosoft.
com/silverlight) and, at the end of the
procedure, tick ‘Enable Microsoft
Update (recommended)’.
Yoy can enable Microsoft Update by installing
Silverlight
Check update settings for
your phone or tablet
The recent Freak bug didn’t just strike
Windows - Android and iOS were
affected too, with Microsoft, Google and
Apple all racing to release fixes. There’s
currently no way of setting your device
to install Android or iOS updates
automatically, but we recommend
installing updates
as soon as you see
an on-screen
notification telling
you there’s one
available.
To check for
available updates
on your Android
tablet or phone, go
to Settings and tap
‘About phone’ (or
‘About tablet’),
‘System updates’,
then ‘Check for
update’. In iOS,
tap Settings,
General and
TWITTER CM
BE USEFUL!
You may think of Twitter as the preserve
of trolls and celebrities, but it does have
its useful side as well - in fact it's the
web's best source of breaking security
news. Most big security companies and
experts post news and comments on
Twitter, and if you 'follow' them you can
be first to know about the latest threats,
patches, products and tips. Here are a
few of our favourites:
(Smsftsecresponse
Latest security bulletins from Microsoft's
Security Response team.
(^Symantec
Breaking security news from antivirus
firm Symantec.
(Sgcluley
News, comments and tips from one of
the web's most prolific security experts,
Graham Cluley.
(Se.kaspersky
Kaspersky is a person! Eugene
Kaspersky, founder of the antivirus
giant, posts interesting comments and
links several times a day.
Be first to hear about threats and updates
by following security firms on Twitter
then Software Update.
It’s also a good idea to set your
phone and tablet apps to update
automatically, on Wi-Fi only
(otherwise you could end up
with a hefty mobile-data bill) .
In Android, open the Google Play
app and tap the menu (three
lines). Settings, then ‘Auto-update
apps’ and choose ‘Auto-update
apps over Wi-Fi only’ (see
screenshot left). In iOS, tap
Settings, then ‘iTunes & App
Store’ and make sure Updates is
switched on under Automatic
Downloads, but leave Use Mobile
Data switched off.
Make sure your mobile apps
are set to update - but only
over Wi-Fi
15 -28 April 2015 59
Sort your messy
files and
folders
Your PC is full of folders, photos, documents
and other clutter. Barry Collins reveals free
tools and tricks for bringing order to the mess
D uplicate photos, empty
documents, long-abandoned
folders and other clutter quickly
turn a clean hard drive into a
digital dump.
The space problem is especially
pressing if you’re using a modern PC or
laptop with an SSD (solid-state drive),
because these drives are built for speed
rather than storage. Alas, Windows (or
File) Explorer isn’t as helpful as it might
be when it comes to de-cluttering your
files and folders, so here we’ll show
you the best free third-party tools for
keeping your hard drive and external
drives in good working order.
Identify the space hogs
New tool TreeSize Free (www.snipca.
com/15900) reveals how much space is
being taken up by every folder on your
local hard drive (usually C:), including
the stuff that doesn’t show up in
Windows Explorer. You can also use it to
scan external hard drives and partitions
as well as your local drive (see Best Free
Software, Issue 445).
But the most powerful Explorer
replacement is Disk Space Analyzer,
which is built into Clary Utilities (www
snipca. com/15901). Click the big green
Download Now button to get Clary’s
installer, which doesn’t contain any
adware. To open Disk Space Analyzer, run
Clary, click Advanced Tools, then click
the bottom one of two dots at the right of
the program window. Under Disk Space
on the left, click ‘Explore disks’ (‘disk’ is
another word for drive). As with TreeSize,
you can choose to examine both built-in
Find out which folders are hogging your hard-drive space using the Disk Space Analyzer tool in
Clary Utilities
and external drives. Clary will quickly
come back with a clear breakdown of the
drive space used by each folder (as
percentages). Most of the space hogs
will be in the Users folder.
Clary is great at identifying large
folders of photos and videos, and you can
filter your search according to types of
file using the relevant tabs at the top of
your scan results (see screenshot below
left) . If you find an unwanted folder you
can delete it there and then, but don’t
delete an54:hing you’re unsure of,
especially in the Windows folder.
Weed out duplicates
and merge folders
It’s very easy to end up with two or
more folders containing lots of wasteful,
duplicate files - maybe you’ve downloaded
the same photos from a digital camera
twice, for example.
Open-source tool WinMerge (http://
winmerge.org) is a simple way to tackle
this problem. Click the green Download
Now button (there’s no adware to opt out
of). When you run the program, click
File, then Open and choose the first
folder you suspect might contain
duplicates (this will appear on the left)
and then the second folder (this will
appear on the right). WinMerge will scan
them and reveal which files only appear
in the left-hand or only in the right-hand
folder, and which are exact copies. To
clean up, click Edit, Select All and then
right-click the files highlighted in blue.
Choose ‘Copy Left to Right’ or ‘Copy
Right to Left’, always moving to the folder
that contains fewer files. All the files
should now be in the target folder,
meaning you can delete the other folder
- but check that everything has been
60 15 -28 April 2015
Sort your messy files and folders
WINDOWS EXPLORER SEARCH TRICKS
Windows Explorer may not be very good at helping you
organise your files, but it does have some great hidden
filtering tricks for searching files.
For instance, let's say you have a document called 'Club
newsletter' that you edited last week, but now you can't find
it. Type newsletter into the search box at the top right, then
type datemodified: (including the colon). A little calendar
will pop up, letting you narrow the search to this week, this
month, this year or to a specific date.
Alternatively, type size to filter your search results
according to size, or kind to sort according to file type. You
can combine more than one of these filters to help you find
what you're looking for. Use search filters like 'datemodified:' in Explorer to find files or folders faster
Compare and merge the contents of two folders you
suspect are duplicates using WinMerge
copied across safely first.
If you simply want to find and delete
duplicate files, try Auslogics Duplicate
File Finder (www.snipca. com/15902).
The installer doesn’t contain adware,
but you should untick the offer of other
Auslogics software. The program lets you
target specific file types (photos, videos,
documents and so on) or scan your
entire hard drive. It also lets you ignore
duplicates below a certain size. Once it
has identified the duplicates, click the
Select button, select all the duplicate files,
then move them to the Recycle Bin.
Batch-edit file names and dates
If you’ve ever copied files from your
digital camera to your computer, they
probably arrived with unhelpful file
names that are pretty useless should
you ever try searching for them at a
later date. The best free solution is
Advanced Renamer (www advanced
renamer.com), which comes in
installable and portable versions.
Run the program, click Add in the
right-hand panel and select all the files
you want to rename, then click Add
Method and choose a renaming option.
For example, to give them all the same
name plus an incremental number,
choose New Name, type a name (say.
Crete Holiday) then choose
‘Incremental numbers’ from the
tags below. Click Start Batch,
then Start in the window that
appears, and the files will be
renamed ‘Crete Holidayl’,
‘Crete Holiday2’ and so on.
Free tool EXIF Date Changer
(www.snipca.com/15903) lets
you batch-edit file dates. This is
handy if, for example, you’d
forgotten to set the correct time
on your camera and all last year’s holiday
photos think they were taken in 2007. If
you use it, first go to the Options tab and
untick Rename Files To - otherwise your
files will be renamed as the date.
Colour-code your
files and folders
One of the best ways to organise your
files and folders is also one of the simplest
- colour-code them. Folder Colorizer
(www.snipca.com/15904 - scroll down
to the Folder Colorizer and click Free
Download) is a quick and simple tool
for colouring specific folder icons to
help them stand out in Explorer. The
program is free, but make sure you click
‘Custom installation’ and untick Install
360 Total Security during installation.
To colour a folder, right-click it in
Explorer and click Colorize, then choose
a default colour or mix your own using
the Colors option at the bottom.
To colour-code your files, use
XYplorerFree (www.snipca.com/15905) .
It lets you give each file a coloured label
(for example, green for documents
you’ve finished, red for ‘to-do’) so you
can sort your work at a glance. The
program is free and comes in installable
and portable versions. Run either
version, select a file, then click View,
Columns and tick Label. Then, when you
right-click in the empty space under
Label to the right of the file, you can
select a colour for that document.
The file name is highlighted
in your chosen colour.
a •
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Colour-code your files for easy sorting using XYplorerFree
15 -28 April 2015 61
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Problems Solved
PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT
How do I access
Google Play from
the Isle of Man?
I live on the Isle of Man (loM),
whieh limits the apps I ean
download from Google Play.
The loM is part of the British Isles but
not part of the UK, whieh is apparently
the problem. For many apps, sueh as
BBC iPlayer, Google Play simply says:
“This app is unavailable in your
eountry”. I assume that Google does
not reeognise loM as part of Britain.
Carlton Mealin
You’re right that Google
Play makes decisions based
on location. It does this in
a variety of ways, including the
connected device’s IP address - and
this is likely to be the root cause of
your problem.
There’s only a finite number of IP
addresses, which internet service
providers (ISPs) are issued in blocks.
Typically, your ISP’s stock of IP
addresses will reflect its geographical
location (or at least the locations of its
customers). However, some will hold
stocks that don’t reflect actual
locations. An loM IP address should
work with Google Play but, even if your
ISP is Manx Telecom, for example,
there’s no guarantee that it’s issued
you with an an loM IP address.
Many domestic broadband
connections are issued with dynamic
IP addresses, which means the IP
address changes from time to time. This
could happen to a schedule decided by
the ISP, or when you disconnect your
router for a while. It’s usually also
possible to force your router to drop its
current IP address and request a new
one (though your ISP might well issue
you the same one, until it decides it’s
time for a new one). To do this you’ll
need to access your router’s admin
page (typically by typing 192.168.0.1’
or something similar into a web
Use a virtual private network to overcome
geographic restrictions
browser and pressing Enter), then look
for the option to disconnect or reset
your connection. You can also ask your
ISP to issue you with a new IP address.
Alternatively, you could use a virtual
private network (VPN) to make it look
as though your Android device is
connected via a UK-based server. Many
VPN services are paid-for but free ones
do exist, though they usually have
restrictions - such as limits on
streaming. That’s no problem if you
want to download apps, but if you then
want to stream with BBC iPlayer you
may need to consider a paid-for service.
To set up a VPN in Android (4.4
onwards), tap Settings followed by More
and then VPN. Tap the ‘ + ’ symbol then
enter the details of your chosen VPN
service. A service called Free UK VPN,
for example, has the account name
‘FREEUKVPN’ (in capitals) and ‘ukvpn.
freeukvpn.co.uk’ as the server address,
so enter these details and tap Save. Now
tap the new entry and enter the user
name (‘FREEUKVPN’) and password:
this changes regularly, but you can get
it by visiting www.freeukvpn.co.uk.
Download your apps from Google
Play then, to disconnect, return to the
VPN screen, tap the FREEUKVPN
entry and tap Disconnect.
Why can't I pay
online using
Microsoft Money?
I use Mierosoft Money to
manage my personal banking.
I’ve been trying to to set up
seheduled transaetions for my bank to
pay bills. In the appropriate page I want
to ehoose the Pay Online option, but this
is always greyed out. The online option
available on this page is ‘Write Cheque’.
Do you have any idea why this might be
happening and how I ean aetivate the Pay
Online funetion? I’m using Windows 7.
William Chalmers
Yes, we can clarify things and
it’s not good news. Microsoft
Money was discontinued in
2009, and all development of the
program stopped in that year. Support
actually continued until 2011 but, at that
time, Microsoft effectively washed its
hands of the product. It also switched
off all the servers that enabled Money’s
online services.
The company did issue a ‘sunset’
edition of Money to allow people with old
Money files to access their data. However,
while this version of the program is still
available as a free download (from www.
snipca.com/15553) it has had all online
features removed.
Sadly, for you there is no fix - and
never will be. Money is an abandoned
program and it is highly unlikely that
Microsoft will ever revive it, and no
chance at all that the company will ever
reactive online functionality in the old
versions.
64 15 -28 April 2015
Our experts solve all your tech problems
B Email us your problem and we'll try to help: noproblem(Scomputeractive.co.uk
How do I move stuff from XP to Windows 8.1?
I’m going to buy a new PC
because for the sake of security
I feel it’s time to retire my old
Windows XP machine. I have my eye on a
Windows 8.1 laptop, but I’m a bit worried
about about some of the things I’ve read.
I understand that Windows 8.1 is not
compatible with the backup files
produced by Windows XP? Is this true?
If so, how am I supposed to move my
personal files and folders from XP to
my new computer? My backups are
stored on an external hard drive. Also,
how do I stop my old XP computer
connecting to my Wi-Fi?
Jeremy Cook
Although it’s almost
unbelievable, we’re afraid it’s
true that Windows 8.1 cannot
read the files created by Windows XP’s
built-in backup tool. In fact, the same is
true of Windows 7, but Microsoft did
eventually release a tool that enabled
people going from XP to Windows 7
to restore the files (with a .bkf file
extension) created by XP’s backup tool.
Use free tool PCmover Express to transfer files from
your old XP PC to a new Windows 8/8.1 computer
It’s called ‘Windows NT Backup - Restore
Utility’, and it’s a free download from
WWW. snipca. com/15 575 .
However, similarly unbelievably, that
tool is not compatible with Windows 8.1
- so it’s no help for people like you who
want to jump from XP to 8.1. There is a
way to get it to work by copying certain
system files from your XP computer but
there are still some problems using it.
As you still have a working XP
computer, it’s better to use another
solution. Perhaps realising the
idiocy of this situation, Microsoft
struck a deal with file-transfer
veteran Laplink to give away a free
copy of PCmover Express, which
you can download from www.
snipca.com/15576. Install this on
both your XP and new Windows 8.1
PC and then, starting on the XP
machine, work through the
instructions to decide what data you
want to transfer. The transfer can be
handled wirelessly, via your Wi-Fi router
(expect it to take a few hours though).
Finally, to disconnect your XP
machine from Wi-Fi, first right-click
the network icon in the notification
area of the Taskbar (bottom right,
basically) and choose Properties. Now
click your network name then click the
Disconnect button.
Can I use Google Maps offline
with my iPhone?
hu EUy T -a > j
f
I have had an aeeount with
Memory-Map (www.memory-
map.eo.uk) for years and have
it lieensed on a number of deviees,
ineluding my handheld GPS and iPhone.
I use it for walking and eyeling. I also
use it on my laptop with a GPS dongle.
This is great for planning tours in the
ear, but I only have ordnanee survey
maps for GB and IGN maps in Franee.
When it eomes to Spain my serolling
map ends at the border. So, is there a
way to download maps from Google
Maps (or any other mapping software)
that I ean use in Spain without needing
an internet eonneetion?
John Ashe
The iPhone version of Google
Maps makes it possible to store
maps offline, limited to blocks
of 50km square. To do
this, first search for an
area then, when its
label appears at the
bottom, swipe up then
tap the menu button
(three dots) followed
by ‘Save offline map’.
Now pinch to zoom
into the area and tap
SAVE. Type a name
then tap SAVE again.
To call up saved maps,
tap the app’s main
menu button (three lines), then tap
‘Your places’.
We know of no current easy (or legal)
way to save Google Maps data on a PC,
because Google has changed the way
the service works to make it difficult to
do so. However, the free GMapCatcher
Save maps for offline use on your iPhone in Google Maps
program (www.snipca.com/15591) -
which previously did the job for Google
Maps - now lets you download maps
from a variety of popular services,
including Microsoft’s Bing Maps
(www.bing.com/maps) and the
popular OpenStreetMap (www.
openstreetmap.org) .
15 -28 April 2015 65
Problems Solved
How do I remove
Avast signature
from my emails?
I read Keith Chessell’s letter
(Problems Solved, Issue 445)
with some interest. My
problem isn’t the same as his, but it
is related. Aetually, it was your reply
that highlighted my problem: Avast
2015 Free inserts its logo and
aeeompanying marketing message
into every email I send.
I understand the program is free
but I’d rather not have this banner
attaehed to my emails. Is this
beeause the program is free? Is there
any way of stopping this, or will I
need to upgrade to the paid-for
version to remove it? I use Windows
Live Mail 2012 with Windows 7
Home Edition.
Eric Hammond
You don’t need to upgrade
to the paid-for software to
remove Avast’ s marketing
signature, though the option to
disable it is both thoroughly hidden
and misleadingly named.
To begin, right-click the Avast
icon in the notification area of the
Windows Taskbar and choose
‘Open Avast user interface’. Next, in
the left-hand pane, click Settings
followed by Active Protection. Now
click the Customize link alongside
Mail Shield, then Behavior in the
left-hand pane. Finally, in the
General section, clear the tick from
the ‘Insert note into clean message
(outgoing)’ box (see screenshot
below). Click OK twice and the Avast
signature will be history.
What's the actual price of
this Android app?
I’ve reeently
upgraded my
Nexus 7 tablet to a
12.2-ineh Galaxy Note Pro.
Up until now I have
refrained from giving
Google my eredit-eard
details, but reeently I
deeided I’d like to put a
eouple of Android games on
my tablet to go with all my
musie. Speeifieally, I want
the Football Manager game,
whieh I also play on my
desktop PC. I don’t mind
paying the £6.99 demanded by Google
Play Store, but on eheeking the details it
said something about ‘in- app eharges’,
with a priee range of 69p to £9.99. What
are these? I never had extra eharges on
the desktop version of the game, and I
don’t want Google taking money from
my aeeount willy-nilly. So what are these
eharges? Fees for updates? Please help.
Martin Fletcher
In-app purchases are precisely
that: purchases that can be made
within the app. So, in this case.
Apps in the Google Play store, such as Football Manager
Handheld, come with optional in-app purchases
the Football Manager app itself costs a
fixed amount of £6.99. For that you’ll
be able to download and play the game,
which by most accounts is a pretty
faithful reproduction of its desktop
counterpart.
However, the mobile version of
Football Manager also offers extra stuff
to buy inside the app, from extra
challenges to an editing tool. It is to these
that the published price range relates.
You do not have to buy these to play the
game, and will not be charged for them
unless you choose to do so.
What's causing this sudden fan noise?
I followed your adviee to elear
the dust from inside my desktop
PC. However, mueh to my
horror, I was greeted with a horrendous
noise eoming mainly from the eabinet
fan. What eould I have possibly done? I
have diseonneeted both fans to get some
peaee, but now I see an error message
about them not being deteeted. Do I need
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to replaee the fans?
John Kinchington
Ensure Avast doesn't leave signatures on
your emails via its Behavior settings
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If your PCs fans are making a lot of noise, use the free tool
SpeedFan to control how fast they rotate
Your PC needs fans, so reconnect
them right away. It’s possible
that you have disturbed the
blades on their spindles, causing them
to wobble at speed. Try a little thumb
pressure to reseat and stabilise them.
You could also try using
the free SpeedFan tool (www.
snipca.com/15603) to lower
the fan speeds until the
noise is acceptable. First, try
ticking ‘Automatic fan speed’
on the Reading tab. If that
doesn’t work, click the
Configure button, select the
Fans tab, then select a Fan to
manually lower its speed -
but keep an eye on the
temperatures on the Readings
tab, and don’t let them
get too high.
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66 15 -28 April 2015
Why doesn't RunAsDate do anything?
In Issue 442, you recommended
a free program called
RunAsDate (www.snipca.
com/15069) to reset trial programs to
their starting date. But there are no
instructions. I browsed for the trial
version of Microsoft Digital Image
Starter Edition 2006, which is no
longer available to buy so I couldn’t
upgrade to the full version anyway.
I then clicked Run in RunAsDate and
absolutely nothing happened. I clicked
on Create Desktop Shortcut and again
nothing happened. Could I be doing
something wrong?
John Presland
We tried RunAsDate with Digital
Image Starter Edition (DISE)
2006 and it works as expected.
So, we assume that you must’ve done
something wrong. Or, more accurately,
we reckon it’s something you didn’t do.
Clicking Run in RunAsDate won’t do
anything unless you’ve selected a
program file on which the utility should
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Make sure you
specify a program in
RunAsDate and create
a Desktop shortcut
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work its magic. To make RunAsDate work
with DISE 2006, click the Browse button
and then navigate to the program’s
installation folder. Assuming you didn’t
change the default during installation,
then this is C:\Program Files \ Microsoft
Digital Image 2006. Next, click to select
‘pi.exe’ (which is the relevant DISE 2006
program file) and choose Open. Click
Run, and RunAsDate will do its job.
Incidentally, you might want to put a
tick in the ‘Return to the current date/
time after’ box, otherwise any date and
time stamps you create in DISE 2006 will
be inaccurate. If you want to create a
Windows Desktop shortcut to speed
things up for subsequent launches, first
type a name for the shortcut (in the box
next to the button - see screenshot), then
click Create Desktop Shortcut.
How do I restore my missing 250GB partition?
I have a Maxtor
500GB external
hard drive that,
several years ago, I divided
into two equal partitions
by using EaseUS Partition
Master. I’ve sinee
uninstalled this program.
Reeently, I wanted to restore
the drive to a single
partition and used Paragon
Partition Manager (free
edition) to do this. Naively,
I used the Delete Partition
faeility, whieh removed one
of the partitions. However, I
now find the eapaeity of my
drive is only half of what it
should be. What’s happened
and how ean I restore the drive to its
original 500GB? I run Windows 7
Home Premium.
Michael K Bell
What happened is that by
deleting a partition you have
created ‘unallocated’ space on
your drive. Until this space is allocated.
Restore missing hard-drive space via Windows Computer Management tool
either by creating a new partition or
‘extending’ an existing partition to use
the unallocated space, this part of your
drive’s storage will remain invisible to
Windows.
Extending your existing (C:) partition
into this unallocated space is easy with
Windows 7, and you don’t need extra
software to do it. First, click Start then
right-click Computer
and choose Manage.
Now click Storage
followed by Disk
Management. In the
lower, right-hand pane,
you’ll see a list of all
attached drives. In
your case, you’ll
probably see ‘Disk 0’
and ‘Disk 1’ - with
Disk 1 almost certainly
the external drive.
You can double-check
by taking note of the
capacities on the
left-hand side, or
by disconnecting
and reconnecting
the external drive.
Now right-click the existing working
partition (with a blue banner), choose
Extend Volume, click Next, accept the
maximum amount for the extension,
click Next and follow the prompts.
After a minute or two, your drive will
have just one large partition - and your
missing 250GB will be restored.
15 -28 April 2015 67
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Issue 415 22 January; Issue 425 11 June; Issue 430 20 August; Issue 437 26 November
Why can't I run 64bit machines in VirtualBox?
I have a laptop running the 64bit
edition of Windows 7, but 1
eannot get 64bit operating
systems to run in VirtualBox - only their
32bit eounterparts. Also, you reeently
published a SoureeForge link to
operating systems to use on VirtualBox.
1 downloaded the Android link, but it
wouldn’t run beeause the downloaded
file was not ISO format. Please help.
M J Fordham
To run a 64bit operating system
in VirtualBox your computer
must have a 64bit processor
with built-in support for hardware
virtualisation. We know your PC has a
64bit processor because you’re running
64bit Windows and, while there are some
64bit processors that lack hardware-
virtualisation capabilities, this isn’t likely
to be case for the Intel or AMD processor
that’s probably at the heart of your PC.
Most likely is that the relevant
technology (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) is
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When setting up a virtual machine make sure
you select the correct version for your PC
simply not enabled in your computer’s
BIOS. So, restart your PC, tap the
necessary key to access the BIOS
(typically Delete/Del or F2) and then
scour the BIOS pages for an option
called ‘Virtualization Technology’ (or
something similar) and set it to Enabled.
Exit the BIOS, usually by pressing
Escape (Esc), and save your changes.
Einally, make sure when you set up
a new virtual machine that you choose a
64bit operating system template from the
Version dropdown menu.
As for the Android virtual machine,
we’re assuming that you’re talking about
the popular Android-x86 project? The
SourceEorge page for this is www.snipca.
com/15552 and clicking the green
Download button in the middle of the
page should download the ISO file.
If you’re still struggling, try visiting
the project’s own home page, at www.
android-x86.org. Click Download in the
left-hand side pane then, in the right-
hand pane, scroll down to the ‘Android-
X86-4.4’ section and click the View link
next to the ‘Android-x86 4.4-rl live &
installation iso’ entry: this redirects
you to SourceEorge, but the download
will begin right away, removing the
potential for you to click the wrong
download button.
Why does my keyboard type duplicate characters?
1 have a self-built 64bit
Windows 7 PC that works well
exeept for one problem. In some
programs (but not all), my keyboard
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duplieates eharaeters. Even typing this
email required 15 or more deletions! I’ve
aeeessed Keyboard Properties via Control
Panel and set both ‘Repeat delay’ and
‘Repeat rate’ to their minimum
positions, but it hasn’t helped.
It’s a Mierosoft Internet Keyboard
eonneeted through a KVM
(keyboard-video-mouse) switeh,
and it works perfeetly on my
old Windows 98 PC.
Shane McLaughlin
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If tweaking your Keyboard properties fails to resolve
typing problems check your ICVM switch and cables
There are numerous
possible causes for this,
but we suspect your
KVM switch is to blame. In the
first instance we’d suggest
removing it from your setup
to see if that helps.
If the problem is resolved,
reconnect the KVM but try
reversing the connections
(that is, swap the connections to
the Windows 98 computer with
the Windows 7 PC). If this also
fixes the problem then there’s a
fault with one half of your
KVM’s connections. Buy a
replacement, because a new
model would be cheaper than a repair.
Next, download and install Microsoft’s
free IntelliType Pro tool, from www.
snipca.com/15421 - this will ensure the
drivers are the perfect match for your
keyboard model.
Einally, it’s possible that a bug in
your motherboard’s USB controller is
causing this problem. Because yours
is a self-built PC, there won’t be any
automated-update tools installed (other
than Windows, obviously), so visit your
motherboard manufacturer’s website to
see if there’s a firmware update. Methods
vary so we can’t tell you how to apply
this - simply follow the manufacturer’s
instructions.
NEXT ISSUE
* How do I wipe down my
old PCs?
» Why does Word launch with
gibberish?
* How do I add repeat reminders in
Android?
..And many more
Subscribe to Computeractive
at getcomputeractive.co.uk
15 -28 April 2015 69
% Fast Fixes
Open documents that won't open, find
lost footnotes and fix corrupted fonts
Some documents won't open
If you see an error message when you
attempt to open an older document, it
might be because Word is set to block
files it considers unsafe - which can
include documents created by older
versions of the program.
To fix this, click File followed by Word
Options (2013) or, if you’re running Word
2010, click File, Help, then Options. Now
click Trust Center, then File Block
Settings. Untick the blocked file types
you’d like to open, then click OK.
Doing the same in Word 2007 requires
a Registry tweak that Microsoft has made
available as a free ‘Fix it’ tool (www
snipca. com/15740) .
If Word refuses to open some document
types, tweak the options in File Block Settings
Word won't open
If you can’t get Word to open at all, it’s
probably due to faulty add-ins (Microsoft’s
term for extensions for Office programs).
The answer is to disable or reinstall the
broken add-in - but that’s easier said than
done if you can’t load Word. So, start by
launching Word in its own safe mode.
Click Start, type winword.exe /safe and
press Enter. Word might look or act a bit
different, but don’t worry - this is because
all your add-ins have been disabled.
You now need to work methodically,
disabling one add-in at a time before
restarting Word to see if the problem is
fixed. Click File, Word Options and then
‘Add-ins’. Select ‘COM Add-ins’ from the
Manage dropdown menu. Clear a tick
from one add-in and click OK, then start
Word as normal (not in safe mode). If it
fails, repeat this entire tip with a different
add-in. When you find the offending
add-in, leave it disabled or reinstall it.
i»ri>pni*Tws [l!
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When Word won't launch, use safe mode to
diagnose and fix the problem
Footnotes have disappeared
In older versions of Word, footnotes
were always visible in the program’s
Normal or Print Layout views, but this
changed with Word 2010. It’s now
less easy to see footnotes at a glance,
and much less obvious how to edit
footnotes in groups.
To fix the first problem, select the
References tab and then click Show
Notes (in the Footnotes group). Then, to
view or edit all your footnotes in one
place, choose the View tab and then
click Draft in the Views group.
Spell-checker doesn't work
Word 2010 and 2013 have both a
traditional spell-checker - where an
entire document is checked in one
run-through - and a live system that
underlines errors in red as you type. If
these aren’t working, or aren’t working
as you’d expect, then try this. Select the
Review tab, then choose Language in the
Make sure Word's spell-checker is using the
correct language and set to check as you type
Language group followed by Set Proofing
Language. First, make sure that your
preferred language is selected. If it isn’t,
select it and then click the Set As Default
button. Next, check the ‘Do not check
spelling or grammar’ box. If it’s clear.
Word will not check your spelling as you
type - so if that’s what you want it to do,
tick the box.
Can't change Recent
Places in Word 2010
When you click File in Word 2010 and
2013, you see a box containing a list of
Recent Documents (just like in previous
versions of Word) and Recent Places
(such as folders you’ve recently saved
documents to). Normally you can
change how many Recent Places
are shown by clicking File, Options,
Advanced and then changing the figure
in the Display section.
However, there’s a bug in Word 2010
that can stop this from working. You
can fix it by editing the Registry via
Registry Editor, but it’s easier to
download Microsoft’s free ‘Fix it’ tool
(www.snipca.com/15743) .
Word displays an
Invalid Page' error
If you see an error message about an
‘Invalid Page’ when you try to open a
document in any version of Word, it’s
probably because some fonts are missing
or corrupted.
You can fix it in the same way in any
version. Press Shift + FI to open the Reveal
Formatting pane, then step through the
document with the text cursor, noting
down the fonts used. Now click Start
followed by Control Panel, then click
‘Appearance and Personalization’
followed by Fonts. Check that all the
listed fonts are present. If any are
missing, you’ll need to install them.
Otherwise, start a new, clean document,
type some text and format it with the first
font on your list. Save, close Word, then
restart and open the document just
created. Change the font and repeat until
the Invalid Page error appears. Re-install
the corrupted fault, or stop using it.
70 15 -28 April 2015
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72 15 -28 April 2015
Jargon Buster
1080p Of the common types of ^
high-definition video, this is the
best quality: 1920x1080 pixels.
32bit A measure of how much ,
information a PC can process at \
once. Most older PCs are 32bit. |
64bit A technology that processes j
information in larger chunks. Most
modern computers are 64bit.
802.11ac A standard for wireless |
networks that allows for higher
transfer speeds than 802.11n. |
i
ADF Automatic Document Feeder, j
A device that feeds sheets of paper 3
into a photocopier or scanner, one
at a time.
Aperture An opening that controls
the amount of light entering a
camera lens.
Aspect ratio A measurement of
the shape of a display. Traditional
PC screens are 4:3. Widescreen
displays are 16:9 or 16:10. 1
Bandwidth A measure of how
much data can be transferred
through a connection at one time.
BIOS Basic Input-Output System.
Software built into every PC that
connects the vital components.
Bookmarklet A small, very simple
program stored as a bookmark in
your web browser.
Cookie A small text file stored on
your computer by a website. Used
to store browsing preferences,
website login details and so on.
CSC Compact system cameras. A
camera that uses interchangeable
lenses, but doesn't have a
viewfinder that uses a mirror.
Disk image A file that contains all
the information from a CD or DVD.
Sometimes known as an ISO.
dpi Dots per inch. A measure of
printed image quality, or the size
an object will be shown on screen.
Dual band Wi-Fi routers with two
wireless radios working on the 2.4
and SGFIz frequencies.
Duplex printing Printing on both
sides of a sheet of paper.
DVI Digital Visual Interface. A
common type of display connector.
Eight-core A PC that has eight
processors on a single chip.
EPUB A file format used by many
popular ebook readers.
Equaliser An equaliser changes
the tone of music produced by a
computer or portable player.
Ethernet A standard used for
almost all wired PC networks.
EXE A program file designed to
run in Windows.
Exposure The amount of light
collected by a camera's sensor.
Extension A program that adds
extra features to your browser.
False positive When an antivirus
program wrongly detects a
malware infection.
Feedback The tactile response
that the keys on a keyboard give
when they've been pressed.
Firmware Basic software stored
on a device, such as a music player,
to control its operation.
Flash memory A type of memory
that can retain information without
a power source.
HDMI Fligh-definition media
interface. A type of connection
that transmits high-definition
video and audio signals.
I ISO file A type of image file that
: contains all the data from a CD or
I DVD disc.
; ISO The light sensitivity of a
; camera. A high ISO lets you shoot
I in the dark without a flash.
; Megapixel A measure of the
j amount of detail that can be
: recorded by a digital image.
: MFP Multifunction Printer. A
i combined printer and scanner
i MicroSD card A small type of
j memory card.
t
i Motherboard The main circuit
: board inside every PC into which
I all other parts connect.
MP4 A type of digital movie file
often used for portable players.
NFC Near-field communication.
Noise Visible dust-like speckles
that appear in some images.
Open source Software that can
be modified by anyone.
Partition A large hard drive can
be split into two or more partitions
or 'virtual' drives.
Plug-in A small program that adds
extra features to your web browser
or to other applications, and is
loaded only when it's needed.
Processor The processor - or
central processing unit - is the
brain of a computer.
i Quad core A PC that has four
i processors on a single chip.
i RAW A format for digital photos
I that stores the image exactly as
i the camera captured it.
i Remote code execution When a
i hacker is able to start a program
i running on a remote computer
i Resolution The amount of detail
i shown in an image.
j Restore points The collection of
I system files stored by System
j Restore on a given date and time
j to which Windows can revert.
i
j
I SATA Serial Advanced Technology
j Attachment,
i
I Sensor The part of the camera that
I captures each image.
: Server A PC on a network that
: distributes data to other PCs.
I Shutter speed A way of
measuring how much light is
captured by a camera's sensor.
SIM-only A mobile phone contract
in which the network provider
supplies the SIM, an agreed amount
of usage, but not the phone.
SLR Single-Lens Reflex.
SSD Solid-state drive.
Time-shift Recording a TV
programme for later viewing.
Travel The distance the keys of
a keyboard have to be pressed
before the keystroke is recognised.
USB 2.0 Faster successor to USB.
USB 3.0 A even faster version of
the USB standard.
VCD Video Compact Disc.
Virtual machines A software-
based computer running inside
another computer.
VGA Video Graphics Array.
White balance Adjusts the
balance of colours in an image.
Widget A small program that runs
on the Windows Desktop.
Back Issue CD 2014
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I Bust more jargon on our Back Issue CD: www.snipca.com/14981 i
15 -28 April 2015 73
The Final Straw
This issue Stuart Andrews has no one to blame but. . .
STUART ANDREWS is
Computeroctive’s Mr Angry
Himself
L ast year my laptop refused to
connect to the internet. It had a
healthy wireless signal to the router,
but a little yellow exclamation mark
meant I wouldn’t be Googling any time
soon. I picked up my trusty Android
tablet and found that it too had come
over all disconnected. So I marched into
the living room and examined the router.
Sure enough, the ADSL indicator glowed
the kind of muted, passive-aggressive red
that says ‘You’ve got a problem’.
I turned the power on and off - to
no avail. I checked the connections at
the back, but nothing seemed amiss.
I fired up my browser and checked the
router set-up screen, still nothing
untoward. And then, just as I was
explaining sarcastically to my ISP’s tech
support that, yes, of course I’d switched
the router off and on, and, yes, of course
I’d checked the connections, I noticed
that the cable between the router and
the ASDL splitter had been knocked out.
In a split second, I went from irritated
expert to red-faced, blithering, overly
apologetic fool.
We often blame hardware and software
for so many of the problems we suffer
with our devices, but how much actually
comes down to us? Much as I’m happy to
lay blame at the door of Microsoft,
Google and Apple when things go
pear-shaped. I’d have to admit that it’s
sometimes the result of my own
ineptitude. I’ve tested PC monitors that
have left me cursing blank screens, only
to read the manual and learn there’s a
power switch beneath the frame. I was
about to return a non-functioning
II
I was ready to return
a non-working
smartphone when I
realised that I'd slotted
the battery in
upside down
99
smartphone, only to realise I’d slotted the
battery in upside down. On more than
one occasion I’ve complained that a printer
or scanner was a
worthless piece of
scrap (especially
when the USB cable
hadn’t been plugged
in). And like anything
with a human brain, I forget
usernames and passwords.
Software errors can also be
down to human error (or at
the very least a failure to read
what’s on screen). You haven’t
got a leg to stand on if
JPEGs no longer open in your
favourite image editor after
you’ve installed some dodgy photo
app and said ‘yes’ when it asks
to hijack aU your permissions.
Hooray for the
selfie sticks ban!
So, the National Gallery has banned the
selfie stick "in order to protect paintings,
individual privacy and the overall visitor
experience". Good. As I said a few
months ago (in Issue 441 to be exact),
the selfie stick has transformed the
already irritating self-portrait mode into a
genuine public menace, where you're in
danger of a good whacking or prodding
if you're within spitting distance of some
famous landmark or other. What these
halfwits thought they were doing,
posing in front of The Hay Wain or Van
Gogh's Sunflowers (URL????) boggles
the mind, but at least we no longer
have to put up with them waving their
smartphones on stalks in the air.
I’ve also got little sympathy for those who
get hit by malware because they disabled
Windows Update and removed their
antivirus software because their prompts
had become intrusive and intolerable.
Things used to be worse. The more
streamlined and restrictive computers
get, the more idiot-proof they become.
You no longer get a CD-ROM drive you
can mistake for a coffee cup holder, and
long gone are the days when you might
try to fold a 5.25in floppy disc into a
3. Sin floppy drive.
Manufacturers and software developers
have got smarter, and their testing is more
geared toward identifying those areas
where we can royally mess things up.
They don’t always get it right, and bugs
and errors keep on coming, but our tech
is getting easier to use. So next time you
let rip at at some flashing light or error
message, stop and check: are you sure it’s
not a mess of your own making?
Have you made similar mistakes?
Let us know at letters(a)computeractive.co.uk
74 15 -28 April 2015
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