Webuser - 28 June 2012

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ISSUE 295 IS
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For people l who h l love the h internet t
Easy, free & safe software p50
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BEST WEB TV
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28 June 2012
Best software
New websites
Expert tips
DONT LOSE WINDOWS SPEED

One-click software that keeps it fast for free Stop it hogging your PCs memory
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Unblock banned US TV Stop buffering for good Record any web TV Watch new films on your phone ...and lots, lots more!
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Web TV at your command

ou know that a web innovation has become totally integrated into everyday life when its hard to imagine what life was like before it existed. The BBC iPlayer is one such service, and its triggered a catch-up TV revolution. But web enthusiasts like us will always want to know what the next revolution is. And in the world of web TV, its going to come in the shape of greater freedom to watch any programme, no matter what its country of origin, on any device, anywhere. Our 31 tips in the cover feature (page 42) show you which sites, software, apps and add-ons can help you do this now. If you like to watch web TV while cradling a hot drink, turn to page 37 for your chance to win a Web User mug. Go on, stick the kettle on!
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THINGS YOULL TH LEARN THIS ISSUE LE
How to turn voicemail messages on your phone into texts page 35 How to fly a Sopwith Camel in Google Earth page 54 How to save Gmail attachments in Google Drive page 63 How to find corrupt files in Windows 7 page 65 How to resize hundreds of photos in one go page 72
Daniel Booth Editor daniel_booth @dennis.co.uk
ISSUE 295
28 JUNE 2012
ON THE COVER
webometer we
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WE LIKE...
Google mapping UK rivers Google has started mapping UK rivers and canals to help people plan trips on the countrys waterways. Spotify radio Spotify has added free radio to its mobile apps in the US. The service is expected in the UK soon.
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WE DONT LIKE...
Adobes Flash problems in Firefox Adobe is struggling to fix a problem caused by a recent software upgrade that has left some Firefox users unable to watch Flash videos. Only 5.5 per cent get 30Mbps A report claims only 5.5 per cent of Britons get internet speeds of 30Mbps. The national average is around 7.6Mbps.
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28 June 2012
CONTENTS
ISSUE 295 28 JUNE 2012
FREE MUG & MOUSE MAT !
SUBSCRIP PTIONS
Turn to t page 56 for special subs offers
ER E COV TUR FEA
The best tools, apps, websites and hardware for watching lms and TV programmes wherever and whenever you want
p42
Explore the wonders of the world with Google p12
WATCH WEB TV
WEBSITES & APPS

12 Best New Websites This fortnights best new and relaunched sites 34 Best Free Apps Our top new smartphone and tablet apps 42 COVER FEATURE: Watch anything, anytime, anywhere 31 brilliant tools to enhance your online viewing
Six free ways to securely store logins p50
52 Best tools from HotUKDeals 11 ways to get amazing deals from the money-saving site
password managers
Fly around the world and beyond p54
SOFTWARE
6 Essential Masterclass GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) 30 Best Free Software This fortnights top free software downloads 36 Best New Add-ons The 10 most useful tools for your browser 50 Password managers Six secure, free tools for storing logins 54 Flight simulators Nine amazing ways to navigate the skies
28 June 2012
CONTENTS
forum.webuser.co.uk www.facebook.com/webusermagazine www.twitter.com/webusermagazine
HARDWARE
18 Product Test CyberLink MediaShow 6 20 Group Test Seven 23in monitors that cost between 100 and 200
Manage your photos and videos p18
EDITORIAL Editor Daniel Booth Features Editor Robert Irvine Technical & Reviews Editor Andy Shaw Staff Writer Vicky Woollaston Art Editor Jenny Huynh Production Editor Miki Berenyi Editorial Tel: 020 7907 6000 Visit www.webuser.co.uk/forums for technical and buying advice ADVERTISING Tel: 020 7907 6672 Group Advertising Director Julie Price Advertising Manager Andrea Mason Sales Executive Jessica Arnold ADVERTISING PRODUCTION Fax: 020 7907 6066 Group Production Manager Stephen Catherall, 020 7907 6054 Production Controller Ebony Besagni, 020 7907 6060 MARKETING Marketing and Editorial Executive Paul Goodhead Subscriptions Manager Sarah Aldridge Marketing Production Manager Gemma Hills MANAGEMENT Tel: 020 7907 6000 Group Managing Director Ian Westwood Managing Director John Garewal Deputy Managing Director Tim Danton MD of Advertising Julian Lloyd-Evans Commercial and Retail Director David Barker COO Brett Reynolds Group Finance Director Ian Leggett Chief Executive James Tye Chairman Felix Dennis SYNDICATION Syndication Senior Manager Anj Dosaj-Halai Tel: +44 (0)20 7907 6132 Email: anj_dosaj-halai@dennis.co.uk INTERNATIONAL LICENSING Web User is available for licensing overseas. Licensing & Syndication Assistant Nicole Adams Tel: +44 (0)20 7907 6134 Email: nicole_adams@dennis.co.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS Tel: 0844 322 1289 Email: webuser@servicehelpline.co.uk You can manage your existing subscription through www.subsinfo.co.uk. This should be your rst port of call if you have any queries about your subscription. Fax: 01795 414555. A subscription to Web User for one year costs 52 for UK subscribers, 90 for Europe and 146 for the rest of the world. Call 0844 322 1289 to get the next issue, delivered free to your door. PRINTING Printed by BGP, Bicester, Oxon Distributors Seymour 020 7396 4000 REPRINTS Web User operates an efcient commercial reprints service. For details contact: 020 7907 6620 PERMISSIONS Material may not be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publisher. Please address such requests to: John Garewal, Dennis Publishing, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD LIABILITY While every care was taken preparing this magazine, the publishers cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information or any consequence arising from it. All judgments are based on equipment available to Web User at the time of review. Value for money comments are based on UK prices at time of review. Web User takes no responsibility for the content of external websites whose addresses are published in the magazine. A DENNIS PUBLICATION Web User is published fortnightly by Dennis Publishing Ltd, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD. Company registered in England. All material Dennis Publishing Limited licensed by Felden 2010, and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the consent of the publishers. ISSN 1473-7094
REGULARS
8 10 15 16 26 37 38 40 Need to Know Whats New Online Kate Russells Web Calendar Keep Your PC Safe Web Users Best Buys Inbox Crossword Instant Expert Microsofts Surface tablet 69 Broadband Deals 74 Save Money Online
Seven big screens, tried and tested p20
14 pages of workshops, tips, projects and problem solving

58 Workshop 1 Tune up your PC with one click 60 Workshop 2 Give your hard drive a health check 61 Workshop 3 Plug Firefox memory leaks 62 Readers Tips The best tips from our readers 64 Readers Helpdesk Answers from our reader forums 66 Ask the Experts Solutions from our technical team 68 Expert Tips Chromes new Settings page 70 Weekend Project Tips for keeping your photos and videos organised
Use Ashampoos one-click optimizing tool p58
Make Firefox faster and more stable
Customise Chromes settings
p61
p68
28 June 2012
ESSENTIAL MASTERCLASS
Your top priority this fortnight
GIMP 2.8 | www.gimp.org

Wayne Williams looks at new additions to GIMP that make it easier to use
T
2
he GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is a powerful, free alternative to Photoshop. It offers all the tools youd expect to see in a professional image editor, including full support for layers, paint, transformation and colour tools, and a wealth of effects and filters. If you find a tool that hasnt been
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included, hunt around online, because there are lots of independently developed plug-ins that you can download. The program is available for Windows XP SP3 or later, Linux and Mac OS X, and this latest version includes some key changes and improvements that make it much easier to use.
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Unless you like the standard interface, which is made up of separate floating windows for the program, 1 toolbox, 2 and layers & brushes, 3 you should switch to the new unified layout. Go to Windows 4 and click Single-Window Mode. 5 This will make GIMP look like a normal photo editor.
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Open multiple images and switch between them using the tabs at the top. 1 Zoom in and out of a photo with the magnifying tool 2 or percentage box. 3 To resize the left and right panels, click and drag the edges. 4 Click Zoom Image 5 to set whether the image scales when the window size changes.
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The toolbox has a broad range of tools, including a free select tool, 1 crop tool, 2 and paintbrush. 3 When you select a tool, the options for it appear in the box below. 4 Right-clicking the image window will bring up the same menu options 5 that you find across the top of the screen. 6
When editing photos, most people use the same tools repeatedly. GIMP lets you customise the toolbox, and display and prioritise the items you use most. Go to Edit, 1 Preferences and select Toolbox. 2 Click the eye icon 3 next to a tool to add or remove it. Reorder items by clicking and dragging.
The latest version of GIMP lets you edit text directly on the image. Select the text tool, 1 choose the size 2 and colour 3 and click the image. You can resize the box by dragging on the handles. 4 The baseline and kerning (space between letters) can be tweaked in the options box. 5
28 June 2012
Get more practical advice at forum.webuser.co.uk
ESSENTIAL MASTERCLASS
DOCKABLE TOOLBARS
The tabbed docks can be turned into separate columns or floating windows. You can add other docks via the Windows menu
HEALING TOOL
A useful brush for removing small imperfections in your images, such as blemishes and dirt spots
BRUSHES
You can tag brushes, gradients and patterns to make finding the ones you want much easier
UNITS
By default, the program displays the image size in pixels, but you can change this to something else, such as inches, millimetres or centimetres
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The latest version also introduces a Cage Transformation tool 1 that lets you warp parts of an image. Select the tool and click around the item you want to distort. Click and drag the handles, 2 then use the Tool Options to switch between creating and adjusting the cage, and warping its contents. 3
If you want to save a photo in a different format, youll need to use the export option. Go to File, Export. Choose where to save the picture to, 1 and the type of file to save it as. 2 If you keep all your photos in the same folder, you can add that location to the list 3 by clicking the plus sign. 4
If you have a large, widescreen monitor, you can add more columns to the interface. For example, to have Tool Options 1 on the left, simply click and drag it, and let go when you see the blue border. 2 You can also drag the box outside the program to turn it into a floating window. 3
28 June 2012
NEED TO KNOW
Top news stories and how they affect you
Government reveals web snooping details
The government has revealed plans for monitoring what you do and say online. The Communications Data Bill will require ISPs and other communications companies to keep data on users, including what sites they visit, what services they access online, and what kind of emails they send and to whom. To record emails, ISPs must keep a record of the sender and recipient, and when the message was sent. They are not allowed to read the content of the email. The same is true of messages on social networks, like Facebook, and other online services, such as fileupload sites. Your ISP will note which site you visited and when you uploaded a file, but not the content of that file. All data will be held for a year, after which it must be destroyed. If rolled out as planned, the law will cost 1.8bn over the next decade, although the government believes it will bring between 5bn and 6bn in benefits. Local authorities wont be able to access the data, which is
What happened?
intended for use by police and intelligence agencies, as well as Revenue and Customs. Access to the data wont require a warrant, but it can only be given via senior police officers to people who need it for investigations, or to build up cases for trial. Critics have said the plans would put the UK on a par with censorship in countries like China and Iran, but the Government has defended the bill as necessary to battle serious crime and terrorism.
Rights Group (www.openrightsgroup .org), which is working on a plainlanguage version of the bill and leading the campaign against it.
How will it affect you?
As its written, the law means ISPs will have to keep track of who you talk to online and what sites you visit. The bill hasnt been passed yet, and critics inside the coalition and out have promised to pressure the government into altering the rules before they become law. If youre unhappy with what youre hearing about the law, email your MP with your concerns and get involved with irganisations such as the Open
The police and intelligence agencies need to rework existing laws so they can gain access to evidence for their investigations, but this is a heavyhanded approach not a surprise, given most web-related legislation tends to be blunt, expensive and difficult to implement. The Government clearly hopes to get ISPs onside by offering to pay for everything, but we hope they disagree and push for a better system. This law is asking for an all-access pass to who we speak to and where we go online, which means that we will be treated, by default, as suspects. All this data will be accessible without a warrant to ISPs and crime-fighting authorities, which makes us nervous about data leaks. Such a treasure trove of personal information will be worth a lot to media companies and criminals.
What do we think?
28 June 2012
NEWS
Online abusers to have identities revealed
Skype starts showing ads

Skype will start running adverts during calls, but only to users without a paid-for subscription or with no credit in their account. The Conversation Ads, as Skype call them, will only show up during audio calls, not video chats, and will be personalised using demographic data such as age and gender, though you can opt out of some of the personalisation.
What happened?
struggling with connections. To turn off the bulk of the personalisation, edit the Privacy settings under Tools.
What happened?
The government has introduced the Defamation Bill, which aims to make it easier for people who are being bullied or abused online to unmask the identity of their attacker. If passed, the bill will force websites to hand over IP addresses and login names that identify online abusers or trolls to the police. The bill will only apply to libellous or defamatory comments, and hate speech, not basic abuse. In return for revealing personal details, websites will be protected from libel suits brought against them by people who have suffered online abuse.
This means youll be less likely to be a victim of online abuse. It also gives you a course of action if you are targeted on Facebook, Twitter, an online forum or any other type of site.
If you have any credit in your account, the ads wont be shown, so top up a bit if you want to avoid them. They also wont be shown during video chats or on calls that are
Microsoft paid $8.5 billion for Skype last year, so it will be looking to get some money back from its investment hence the adverts. While all web ads are annoying, these are probably worth enduring if it keeps the service largely free, and its easy to turn off the creepy personalised ads. To stop receiving ads, you need money in your account, and the minimum credit is 10, which is a bit steep.
What do we think?
Website taxes people for using IE7

What happened?
Australian electronics web store Kogan (www.kogan .com) said it will tax shoppers who buy items on its site if theyre using IE7 by adding 6.8 per cent - 0.1 per cent for every month since the browser was launched in 2006 to the checkout bill. Kogan hopes to encourage people to upgrade to a more recent version of Internet Explorer, or use Chrome or Firefox, because keeping the site compatible with an antique browser was taking too much time and effort. to upgrade, before more websites follow Kogans lead and blacklists old versions.
What do we think?
Even though this bill wont target everyday online abuse, it will hopefully dissuade trolls from harassing and bullying people, without hampering everyone elses ability to freely speak their mind.
Pressure has to be put on trolls because the few people who hide behind anonymity to be abusive and libellous are ruining the internet for everyone else. This bill is a good start, but the Government needs to get the balance right before the law is passed. Websites should not be too burdened with identifying users, and people should still be able to share information anonymously without having to give away too much personal data. Its a tough balance to strike, but something has to be done if we want to prevent the web from descending into a cesspit of bullying, abuse and libel.
Kogans UK site hasnt yet applied the new tax, and maybe its an empty threat, but the burden still exists for web designers. If you or anyone you know remains on an outdated browser, its time
As far as PR stunts go, this is one we support. Microsoft should do more to push users to a fresher, safer browser, rather than leaving websites such as Kogan to do its dirty work. However, most people who havent upgraded have probably avoided doing so for a good reason: maybe their PC is too old, or theyre not sure how. Bullying them into an upgrade via a headline-grabbing tax isnt the kindest way to encourage people, even if it is effective marketing for a website few of us would otherwise have heard of.
What do we think?
Discuss web news at forum.webuser.co.uk
28 June 2012
WHATS NEW ONLINE

10 brilliant things to do on the web this fortnight
Watch BBCs London TV archive
s part of the build up to the Olympics, the BBC has launched a brilliant archive of TV shows about London, which are essential viewing, whether you live in the capital or not. Alongside some fascinating programmes from the Forties and Fifties are documentaries presented by Clive James, Kenneth Williams, Jools Holland and Sir John Betjeman. The earliest recording is from 7 June 1946, when the BBC resumed transmission after World War Two. A day later, the BBC recorded a victory parade to celebrate a year since the conflict ended. Then, several months later on a windy November morning, the cameras captured Remembrance Sunday. bbc.in/london295
Add your photos to Gmails inbox

mail.google.com Gmail now lets you add your own photos to its inbox, so you can create customised themes. The two options are Light and Dark. To learn how to do it, read the official Gmail blog: bit.ly/themes295.
Listen to endangered sounds

www.savethesounds.info If you miss the bleeps, clicks and whirrs of fax machines, Eighties computers and video recorders, listen to them in the Museum of Endangered Sounds. This wonderful project sets out to capture technology noises that wont be with us for much longer.
www.opera.com/download Now out of beta, the 12th version of the Opera browser contains lots of useful new tools, such as a Do Not Track option and colour-coded security warnings. There are also hundreds of new themes (bit.ly/opera295), including this delightful one starring Cookie Monster. With this impressive release, Opera remains a great alternative to the big three Chrome, Firefox and IE.
Use Opera 12 browser
See Japanese monkeys on Street View

bit.ly/monkeys295 Google recently put on its thermals to capture Jigokudani Monkey Park in Japan for Street View. As this fascinating image shows, every year Japanese Macaques (nicknamed snow monkeys) seek respite from the cold in natural hot springs.
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28 June 2012
WHATS NEW ONLINE

Restart and rewind BBC iPlayer
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer The iPlayers new Live Restart option lets you rewind and restart live TV without waiting for shows to end, so if you miss the start of a programme, you can skip back to the beginning with a single click. For more information, read the BBCs blog (bbc.in/restart295), and for lots more fantastic tips on watching online TV, read our Cover Feature on page 42.
Visit new BBC Radio homepages

www.bbc.co.uk/radio This is the third appearance by the BBC in these pages, but we make no apologies because each one is brilliant. Click the link above and youll see the beta versions of the Beebs new homepages for radio stations, which introduce great features such as the ability to create a list of favourite programmes and clips. The sites look superb, with bright, easy-to-click buttons reminiscent of Windows 8s Metro interface. Read the BBC blog for more info: bbc.in/radio295.
Play Alan Turing Codebreaker game

turinggame.sciencemuseum .org.uk To celebrate its exhibition about the British computing genius Alan Turing (bit.ly/turing295), the Science Museum has launched a code-breaking game packed with challenging puzzles to get the brain ticking over. Click the hints if you get stuck.
bit.ly/prisoners295 Members of genealogy site Findmypast can now search British prisoner-of-war records. These contain information such as rank, POW number, camp location and dates the combatants went missing. More than 7,700 records from World War One and 165,000 from World War Two are available. For payment details, click bit.ly/payment295.
See POW records online
FIRST LOOK
Skype for Linux 4.0

bit.ly/linux295
Theres also a new Call view (similar to that on other versions), and new emoticons. You can also store and view phone numbers on a Skype contacts profile page. This Linux version was released in the same week Skype added contact pinning, which lets you pin your favourite people to the top of your list, to its Windows and Mac versions (but not Linux). The bad news is that Skype now shows adverts during calls made in free accounts on every version (see page 9). Making the different versions look the same is no bad thing because it makes switching from one to another very easy. But after three years without an update, we expected more new tools. If youve been using Skype 2.2, having any of these new features will be a bonus. But if youve recently switched to Linux, youll be frustrated that its still playing catch-up with Windows and Mac.
Follow Olympic athletes on Facebook

www.facebook.com/pages/ olympics This is a handy at-a-glance guide to the Facebook pages of Team GBs athletes, plus other competitors from around the world. Its worth following Tom Daley, Mo Farah, Chris Hoy and Jessica Ennis, who all regularly update their pages.
indows and Mac versions of Skype get updates every couple of months, but its taken a staggering three years for the latest Linux version to drop its beta tag and get an ofcial release. Skype for Linux launched in the middle of June and jumped straight from version 2.2 to 4.0. We tested both versions and noticed that the video and audio quality is much better in 4.0. Theres also less buffering, and it drops calls and goes silent far less often than version 2.2. Also, it doesnt crash anywhere near as much as it did and your chat history loads more quickly. Skype has added some useful tools, including a conversation window that lets you see your recent calls and messages in one place, rather than in multiple chat windows. This tool, which has been in the Windows and Mac versions for some time, makes Skype faster to run and easier to use.
Discuss web news at forum.webuser.co.uk
28 June 2012
11
We review this fortnights best new and relaunched websites
BEST NEW WEBSITES

SITE OF THE FORTNIGHT
NEW
CULTURE
google.com/worldwonders
Google World Wonders Project
From Cologne Cathedral to Yellowstone National Park, Googles World Wonders Project brings together 132 sites of historical, natural and architectural interest. You can browse the wonders by location or theme, such as Monuments & Memorials, Regions & Landscapes, and Palaces & Castles; or just spin the globe on the homepage and click a random marker. Street View imagery of each site immerses you in that location, offering a choice of four views and the usual zoom and navigation controls. However, its the extra content that really makes this website worthwhile: you can read information about each wonder, view professional and amateur photos and videos, and even see 3D models of many buildings and landmarks. With a surprising number of sites in the UK, including Stonehenge, Selby Abbey and Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, its a great way to enrich your cultural knowledge without having to pay or queue for the privilege.
Our rating
WEBSITES
bitly.com
Bitly has long been our favourite URL-shortening service, but this revamp sacrifices its simplicity in favour of social tools, and makes it more fiddly to use. Information and features that were once at your fingertips are now several clicks away, short links have been confusingly renamed bitmarks and shrinking long addresses now involves opening a separate window. There are a few useful additions, such as a new bookmarklet for creating bitmarks as you browse and increased control over who can see your links, but Bitly forgot the golden rule: If it aint broke, dont fix it.
Bitly
RELAUNCH
EATING OUT
www.toptable.co.uk
Our favourite restaurant-booking service has been bought by its biggest rival, OpenTable (www.opentable.com), and the subsequent relaunch adds some useful new features. Chief among these is the ability to get instant confirmation for every booking, rather than having to wait for an email. Search results now include details of special offers and 1,000-point tables (2,000 points gets you a 10 dining cheque), as well as available timeslots, while the most helpful restaurant reviews (as voted for by diners) are now listed before other opinions. Toptables design remains as tidy as ever, and there are updated apps for iPhone, iPad and Android.
Toptable
RELAUNCH
Our rating
Our rating
12
28 June 2012
Reviews by Robert Irvine
BEST NEW WEBSITES

RATINGS GUIDE 5 4 3
Superb. Impossible to fault in terms of design, content and features. Bookmark it now! Very good. Combines a smart design with appealing content. Definitely worth a visit Goo Lacks some Good. fun functionality. Have a look if the subject interests you
Web User looks at hundreds of websites, but only those we award three stars or higher appear in Best New Websites
nobrainerappreviews.com
This site provides reviews of the latest smartphone and tablet apps, as well as app-related news and tips. It covers all the main platforms (Nokia and Windows Phone are lumped together), and has a handy Apps on Sale section, which lists paid-for apps that are now much cheaper or free. The in-depth but unrated reviews suggest the apps have been thoroughly tested, and we like the secret hacks on topics such as rooting your Android device. But we could do without the annoying PunchTab rewards system that overhangs every page and cant be turned off.
No Brainer
APPS
NEW
The Spectator
POLITICS
RELAUNCH
www.spectator.co.uk
www.missingkids.co.uk
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centres site provides improved tools for tackling the problem of missing and abducted children. As well as posting up-to-date information, Missing Kids UK makes it easy to share details of missing youngsters on social networks; download PDF posters to print and distribute; and embed e-posters on websites and blogs. The site also offers clear advice about what to do if you see a missing child, and guidance for those who are thinking of running away. It makes for sad reading, but it could save someones life.
Missing Kids UK
POLICE
RELAUNCH
Rubbish and ugh! are among the user responses to the revamped Spectator site, but some people just hate change. We found the fresh design to be much easier to navigate, with better-organised articles, an improved comments system and the ability to play the podcast from any page. For full access, you still need to subscribe, but theres plenty of free stuff to read, including blogs by political commentators and the lively Coffee House discussion area. Were also pleased that certain features lost in the redesign, such as the crossword, have been restored due to reader demand.
Our rating
Our rating
Our rating
Tell us about your website via webuser@dennis.co.uk
28 June 2012
13
TRAVEL
www.hntbat.com
How Not to Be a Tourist
MUST VISIT
Fabulous
LIFESTYLE
RELAUNCH
MOTORING
www.fabulousmag.co.uk
The website for the Sun newspapers Fabulous magazine has relaunched in a blog-style format. Now updated daily rather than weekly, the site combines articles from the print issue with web-only content for an entertaining mix of lifestyle features, celebrity interviews and real-life stories. Fabulous is aimed at women, but men may enjoy the Videos section and the regular competitions, with prizes such as festival tickets and a years supply of ice cream. Design-wise, theres too much white space and you cant comment on articles, but we like that you can read previous editions of the mag online.
www.zopica.com
Zopica makes hiring a car cheap and easy, by letting you compare prices from more than 40 providers, including Europcar, Budget and Hertz, in one place. Simply say where and when you need your car to view available options, or use the advanced search to specify features such as air conditioning, the number of people and cases, and the vehicle style. Alternatively, click Let us decide and Zopica will suggest a motor. Search results usefully include fuel consumption and capacity details, and you can click through to book each car. Its a simple, speedy route to a comfortable drive.
Zopica
NEW
This tongue-in-cheek travel site could stop you sticking out like a sore thumb when you go abroad. It offers advice on blending in with the locals in New York, Paris, Melbourne and elsewhere, while avoiding tourist activities such as buying tacky T-shirts, dining at chain restaurants and going to the Louvre on Tuesdays (its closed). Some of the photos used to illustrate the tips are amusing, and the genuinely helpful Ask a local sections provide pointers from insiders. We also like the London dos and donts, which include get an Oyster card but dont ever eat a doner kebab.
Our rating
Our rating
Our rating
ALSO NEW
www.anyvouchercodes.co.uk This relaunched site has offers from daily-deals sites, plus thousands of discounts for online stores.
AnyVoucherCodes
Go Canoeing
www.gocanoeing.org.uk Discover how, where and when to get paddling at this advice and activities site from Canoe England.
ENTERTAINMENT
www.denofgeek.com
Theres no shortage of film and TV news online, but Den of Geek has long delved deeper than its rivals by offering exclusive interviews, insider gossip, wittily written features and lively opinions. Whether youre looking for analysis of movie trailers, reviews of cult TV shows or offbeat lists such as Sci-fi cinemas freakiest vortex moments, the sites spruced-up layout gives its excellent content room to breathe, with improved navigation that makes it quicker to jump between stories and hot topics. Best of all, reading and writing comments is now a doddle rather than an eye- and patience-straining ordeal, which boosts the community feel.
Den of Geek
RELAUNCH
www.virtualforgiveness.com If youve upset or been upset by someone, you can use this site to send or request an apology and accompanying gift.
Virtual Forgiveness
Yellow Submarine
www.yellowsubmarine.com Beatles fans will love this site for the upcoming digital release of the 1968 psychedelic animated film.
Track your Bud
Our rating
www.trackyourbud.co.uk See how your Budweiser made its journey from brewery to you.
14
28 June 2012
Tell us about your website via webuser@dennis.co.uk
BEST NEW WEBSITES
Ka Russells top websites and apps for the next 14 days Kate
KATES WEB CALENDAR

bit.ly/moshcam295 Despite the absence of Glastonbury this summer, the festival season is underway, as you can tell by the amount of rain weve had. If you prefer to enjoy live music without getting wet, check out the iOS app Moshcam, which puts streaming gigs into the palm of your hand. The app is free to download and you get five free concerts to sample, after which they cost about the same as a single track through iTunes. However, Moshcam tells me it will be updating the payment system soon, offering monthly unlimited subscriptions for about the same price as a concert ticket.
FOLLOW THE TOUR DE FRANCE
www.cyclingfans.com Cyclingfans.com might not be the prettiest website, but if you want live video coverage of the 99th Tour De France (which starts on 30 June), plus photos, features and news, its definitely one to bookmark. With video archives to explore, its a real fans favourite, though you shouldnt overlook the excellent official Tour De France website (www.letour.fr), which has a downloadable map. For views from the saddle during the race, check out Team Skys busy Facebook page (www.facebook. com/TeamSky) and follow Mark Cavendish on Twitter (twitter.com/ markcavendish).
AVOID MUDDY FESTIVALS WATCH GIGS ONLINE
PLAY NEW F1 GAME
www.f1onlinethegame.com If the British Grand Prix on 8 July has you hankering for high-octane thrills, play Codemasters F1 Online: The Game, which began its public beta testing phase in late June. The browser-based game delivers a fun and accessible top-down racing experience, underpinned with the kind of deeply statistical teammanagement simulation weve come to expect of sports-management games. The basics are free, but you can pay in-game for some customisations if you dont want to wait for your team to finish building parts and upgrades.
Kate presents Webscape for BBC Click and blogs at www.mywebdaily.com
Read more site reviews at www.webuser.co.uk/websites
28 June 2012
15
KEEP YOUR PC SAFE

Expert tips, latest threats and jargon-free info
Your questions answered by security specialists. This issues expert is Christopher Boyd, senior threat researcher at GFI Software In your experience, whats the safest webmail service?
taking extraordinary steps to mask or otherwise hide the variants of the original Zbot they are producing. There are several other Trojans that could be deemed very dangerous. For example, malware like ZeroAccess (also known as Sirefef) is unlike anything we have seen before, performing tasks that arent commonly thought of as malicious. So far, it just sits in the background redirecting search results, but the potential for it to perform more malicious activities is very high. However, we havent really seen it evolve yet, due to the fact that security companies are finding it hard to detect. Also, its fairly widespread and very hard to remove from a PC. Also, lets not forget malware toolkits such as Black Hole. I think this toolkit (the framework used to spread all types of malware) is one of the most malicious things we have seen this year. browser will be safer than its predecessor. This underlines the importance of downloading the latest version of your favourite browser as soon as you can. PCs running old versions will continue to be a target for this type of attack, and for that reason alone, we will continue to see more cross-browser attacks for some time to come, albeit with dwindling numbers of victims.
SECURITY Q&A
Tony Webster, via email
Anything with multiple layers of authentication that requires additional information when logging in is good, especially if you have to deal with a hacked account. For example, Gmail lets you use an authentication process that sends an activation code to your mobile phone every time a login is attempted. The code can only be used once so even if somebody gains access to your Gmail username and password, they cant hijack the account without physical access to your phone as well. This is useful if youre receiving or sending very sensitive emails. To stop this becoming too annoying, you can customise your account so it only sends a code once every 30 days. For more information on this authentication process, read Googles official blog: bit.ly/gmailblog295. Most security tools, such as encryption, virus scanning and IP checking, can be found in most types of webmail. Ultimately, its up to you to decide what fits your needs, but Gmail is currently a very good bet.
Is it wise for Google to warn people that their PC might be infected, when hackers could copy the warning and use it to spread scareware?
Scott Murray, via email
Does the success of the LilyJade worm mean were likely to see more cross-browser attacks?
Frank Woodford, via email
Whats the most dangerous Trojan youve seen this year?

Mary Palmer, via email In my opinion, its Zbot (Zeus). We still see a substantial number of examples in circulation and its difficult to detect, despite being six years old. Its so effective because the bad guys are
Its highly unlikely weve seen the last of cross-browser attacks like LilyJade because theyre versatile and offer lots of opportunities for the perpetrators of these kinds of malware attacks. Cross-browser attacks work across all browsers and are among the more damaging examples of malware, taking advantage of quirks in the way browsers execute JavaScript code. Because theyre effective on multiple browsers, they can attack multiple operating systems. Whereas most malware tends to target Windows PCs, LilyJade can infect Macs and even Linux machines. However, it could be argued that attacks like LilyJade will become less common because every new version of a
This has already happened. In March, we discovered numerous websites that popped up a message claiming that Google systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer. The user was then prompted to download a piece of rogue anti-virus software that presented them with results of a fake scan of their PC. The scammers wanted to trick their victims into paying for software to clean the fake infection from their PCs. Scammers will imitate anything they can get their hands on, and will happily ply their trade whether or not legitimate companies are issuing threat warnings. So while these Google messages can be copied, its still good that Google is warning users about potential malware. After all, most people who create these rogue applications and malware would prefer it if there were no legitimate companies issuing warnings about them.
Email us your security questions at webuser@dennis.co.uk
16
28 June 2012
SECURITY
A security hole in Microsofts XML Core services, which include Internet Explorer, Office 2003 and Office 2007, is being exploited by hackers to take over Windows PCs, and then remotely access Gmail accounts. The attacks can be spread if you visit a malicious web page, or open an infected Office document. Microsoft is working on a patch, but you can protect yourself by following Microsofts Fix it solution here: bit.ly/fix295.
Hackers H ke target Gmail using IE flaw
ALERT!
Say
No
Kaspersky has found new Android malware that steals your text messages. It pretends to be an app called Android Security Suite and can be installed if you visit infected sites or download rogue apps that contain the malware. Check if youve been infected by looking through your apps list for the Android Security Suite icon, which is a blank, blue shield. You must use an anti-virus tool to clean your phone because merely uninstalling the app will not remove the infection. bit.ly/suite295
Android malware steals texts
to
Slow
On 9 July, the servers responsible for the DNSChanger malware are being shut down. Any computers attached to these rogue servers will lose their internet connection. Google has started sending messages to anyone who is infected, with instructions on how to repair the problem. However, security experts warn that hackers could mimic these messages and direct people to install malware instead. Click the link below to find out if youre infected. www.dcwg.org/detect
Beware fake DNSChanger messages
Switch to VIPRE the antivirus that doesnt slow down your PC

VIPRE protects against: Malware & viruses Identity theft Malicious websites Spam emails PC hackers Cybercrime
Facebook users are being sent fake emails that tell them they have notifications pending. If you click the Go to Facebook or See All Notifications buttons in the email, you will be taken to a Canadian pharmacy website selling Viagra. Some emails also contain malicious links to phishing sites and malware. bit.ly/facebook295
Watch out for fake Facebook emails
vipreantivirus.com/wu
Try VIPRE for free at
DECODED
Security jargon explained
Typosquatting
Some people buy URLs that are one spelling mistake (or a typo) away from the real thing, hoping to benefit by being visited regularly by web users who make typing errors. According to Sophos, only about three per cent of typosquatted URLs contain malware (bit.ly/typo295). Most of the others contain scams, adverts, surveys, porn and domain-name adverts. In February, Wikapedia.com and Twtter.com were forced offline and fined 100,000 by regulator PhonepayPlus. Both sites tried to persuade visitors to enter non-existent competitions using premium-rate phone numbers.
Available at
Scan me with your QR code app
Amazon, Amazon.co.uk and the Amazon.co.uk logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Amazon EU S..r.l. or its affiliates. Copyright 2012 GFI Software. All products and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
28 June 2012
17
PRODUCT TEST PRODUCT TEST

We test the latest hardware and software
FEATURES
PERFORMANCE
EASE OF USE
VALUE FOR MONEY
CyberLink MediaShow 6
Vicky Woollaston takes a look at CyberLinks latest software to manage your videos and photos
M
The main function of CyberLink MediaShow 6 is to organise your photos and videos, yet its these tools in the program that are the weakest. When we asked the program to automatically sync media from our PC, it failed to find any compatible files. We couldnt simply use the Import button either, as this only works with external devices like USB hard drives. Instead, we had to manually add folders to the Library. With over 1,000 photos and videos in various formats on our computer, this manual importing process was an unnecessary hassle. We were frustrated by how long it took to upload the files, too. A folder of 237 JPEG photos, each less than 200KB, took three minutes when it only took around 30 seconds in other software. We also had to convert a lot of our videos namely 3GP files from our phone to a compatible format using other software.
ediaShow 6 is CyberLinks latest attempt to make organising your photos and videos less of a chore. It provides a one-stop-shop for managing, editing and sharing your media by combining MediaShows organisation tools with elements taken from its specialist photo- and video-editing software. It comes in two versions, Ultra and Deluxe, though the only difference is that the Ultra version can convert 2D images into 3D. But with the likes of Picasa offering similar tools for free, is it worth paying extra for MediaShows features?
Interface and displays

Once your media files are added, each folder displays a handy slider that lets you browse thumbnails of files inside folders without having to open them first. Hovering over a file lets you edit, rotate or delete it, and also adds a tick box to the top-right corner. We hoped this would let you select multiple
pictures at once, but disappointingly, it only adds selected pictures to your Media Tray, one at a time. The interface is simple to use, because it doesnt have unnecessary menus or use jargon. Although some buttons are misleading, its easy to correct mistakes and undo incorrect tags. If you already use CyberLink software, youll find MediaShow instantly familiar because it has the same look
as the companys other products, such as PhotoDirector and PowerDirector.
Organisation tools
By far the best looking of MediaShows views is the Calendar, which lets you list your photos by date, see all of them as thumbnails and jump to particular dates and events. The only drawback is that you cant edit your pictures in this mode. Instead, you have to go back to another view, find your photo, then click it again to edit it. To organise and label your photos, you use customisable text tags or Tag Faces. MediaShow took almost four and a half minutes to scan the faces in our folder of 237 photos, and it wasnt completely accurate, failing to recognise the same person in photos if the angle of their face was only slightly
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28 June 2012
Discuss this review at forum.webuser.co.uk
CYBERLINK MEDIASHOW 6 PRODUCT TEST

and a half minutes to scan the faces in our folder of 237 photos, and it wasnt totally accurate, failing to recognise the same person in photos if the angle of their face was only slightly different. In some photos it tagged faces in the background, but missed the the photos main subjects. However, once youve managed to get the faces tagged, it will carry the names across to Facebook if you upload the photos there, too.
PRODUCT INFO CYBERLINK MEDIASHOW 6

Deluxe: 39.99 Ultra: 54.99
REQUIREMENTS
Windows 7, Vista or XP
Its easy to edit and create videos, but there arent enough tools
Social media
Its this link to Facebook, plus YouTube and Flickr, that makes MediaShow special, and goes some way to justifying its price. If you sign into your Facebook and Flickr account within the software, you can immediately see all your photo albums and streams. By simply clicking on your friends profile pictures, you can see their photos, too. These can be liked and commented on, and if you drag photos to your Media Tray and click the Save button, you can download albums to your hard drive. The YouTube connection lets you view your own and other peoples videos, and download any that are free from copyright. However, you cant comment on them from within the programme.
(Service Pack 2) 1,024 x 600 pixels screen resolution 16-bit colour 1GB of memory 1GB of hard drive space Intel Pentium D 3.0GHz or better processor
FOR
Social media and 3D
tools are stand-out features Keeps all your tools in one place
Tag Faces lets you organise and find photos of family and friends
Photo-editing tools
MediaShows photo-editing tools are basic, and not much better than youd expect from free software like Picasa. There are standard effects, including sepia and black & white, and you can carry out automatic, one-click edits or adjust various levels manually. The video-editing tools are better, letting you easily correct shaky camerawork and poor audio. The program helpfully lets you edit your photos and videos in one place. We were more impressed with the Create menu. In just a few clicks, you can turn
photos into screensavers and Desktop backgrounds, as well as make animated slideshows that look like theyve been made by a professional. On the video side, it can string clips together to make longer movies and you can choose your own music soundtrack, although the options are limited. The more expensive MS6 Ultra version lets you turn photos and videos from 2D
into 3D with a single click. You need a 3D-capable processor and monitor, or 3D TV, plus 3D glasses to view your files. The effect looks best on high-resolution and HD video files, and is slightly blurry on low-resolution videos. Although its not cinema quality, its still impressive. For free tools that help to organise your photos and videos, turn to our Weekend Project on page 70.
AGAINST
Picasa has similar tools
for free Tools arent good enough for the price
CONTACTS
CyberLink www.cyberlink.com
ALTERNATIVES
OUR VERDICT
CyberLinks MediaShow 6 has lots of tools you can find in other programs, but we loved the convenience of having them all in one place. However, while all its tools are undoubtedly useful, most lack finesse by failing to be easy to use, or accurate enough to work properly. Weve awarded it three stars because we think its links to social networking sites and its 3D features are enough to set it above average. If you need them, these features are definitely worth paying for. MediaShow 6 is one of the cheapest paid-for all-in-one media managers, but for just under 40, we still expected it to perform faster and offer more to set it apart from free alternatives. The software is aimed at beginners, but you can get almost as many features from free programs like Picasa.
Corel AfterShot Pro, 72.79 bit.ly/aftershot295
ACDSee Photo Manager, 56.38 bit.ly/acdsee295
28 June 2012
19
PRODUCT TEST GROUP TEST

We test and compare the latest products
23-24in monitors under 200

Andy Shaw lines up seven new 23-24in monitors that cost between 100 and 200
ost of us give little thought to the humble monitor and simply plug in the standard model that comes with our PC. Yet there are many other monitors that offer different advantages. Would you prefer one thats better at displaying websites, photos, HD movies or fast-moving games? Do you want better viewing angles? Do you need lots of ports? You can get all these enhancements and more without spending much money. Here, we compare seven monitors between 23 and 24in in size (measured diagonally across the viewable part of the screen) that cost less than 200. Some are barely more than 100. We last looked at monitors of this size and price in Issue 285 (bit.ly/issue285), when the LG IPS235V won our Gold Award. Since then, newer models have arrived with even better screens.
HOW WE TESTED
We set each monitor to its factory default setting, then tuned it to its sRGB setting (Standard Red Green Blue, as defined by Microsoft and HP, which recreates accurate colours in Windows and on the web). We then ran a series of tests to check the quality of the screens. We also used a Spyder4 colour calibrator to see how close the monitors settings were to the sRGB standard, and to see if we could improve it with further tweaks. We tested each monitors entertainment credentials by watching Casino Royale on Blu-ray, which has a good range of extremely bright and dark scenes to test the clarity of the contrast. We also played the fast-moving game Crysis to see if the screens refresh rate could keep up with the action. Some of the screens tested have IPS (In-Plane Switching), a relatively new flat-screen technology thats only now becoming available in monitors under 200. The benefits of IPS over the older TN (Twisted Nematic) screens include a wider viewing angle and improved depth of colour and contrast. However, The response time how long it takes for a pixel to change from one colour to another and then back again is not as fast on IPS screens as on many older screens and can result in ghosting during rapidly changing applications like games and films, where faint trails of old frames are left behind as the picture changes. The response time of most recent IPS screens has been improved to tackle this, but we kept an eye out for problems when testing each monitor.
WEB USER
AWARDS
GOLD AWARD
The best product/service in its category
SILVER AWARD
Good, but just misses out on top billing
E BRONZD AWAR
Pretty good, but with some shortcomings
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28 June 2012
Testing by Barry de la Rosa
23-24in MONITORS UNDER 200 GROUP TEST

VIEWSONIC VX 2336 S-LED 121 www.dabs.com
IMAGE QUALITY EASE OF USE VALUE FOR MONEY FEATURES
With a Full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, this monitor uses IPS (In-Plane Switching), so we were expecting to have good depth of colour and contrast. It didnt disappoint the image quality of the Viewsonic is superb as soon as you plug it in, so you dont have to fiddle with menus or settings to get excellent results. There was little difference between the calibrated and uncalibrated (factory-set) picture. According to our tests, the screens default setting was only three per cent different from sRGB, which is almost perfect. Viewing our standard-test Blu-ray film, Casino Royale, gave us a good idea of how its colour accuracy enhances your viewing. We expect IPS screens to have good contrast, but the Viewsonics accurate colour depth enhances this, showing even more detail in areas where other monitors we tested showed solid blocks of a single colour. Viewsonics monitor also excelled in our gaming test, not suffering the blocky problems that plagued other monitors. The one area where the Viewsonic falls behind the other monitors is that it doesnt have an HDMI port, so its harder to connect home entertainment devices like a Blu-ray player or games console. If youre only expecting to plug your monitor into a computer, however, the Viewsonic cant be beaten for its combination of excellent image quality at a great price.
VERDICT
If youre using a monitor thats smaller than 23in or is more than two years old, you should consider upgrading to the VX2336sLED. Its colour accuracy is excellent, as seen in our tests, but whats even more impressive is that it barely needs any tweaking for brilliant results. All you need to do is switch the monitor on, ensure its set to the factory default, and its set up. Its excellent colour depth enhances its contrast, bringing out detail in areas that looked like solid blocks of colour on the other monitors we tested.
GOLD AWARD
EASE OF USE VALUE FOR MONEY FEATURES IMAGE QUALITY

The AOC i2352Vh has an IPS screen with Full HD resolution. As well as the standard VGA and DVI ports, it also comes with an HDMI socket. The screen has a matt finish, which dulls the colours a little, and makes the blacks less deep than they could be. But image quality is good, with our calibration tool reporting that it has good colour accuracy. AOCs menu is at the bottom of the screen and is slow to respond to commands, making it hard to navigate. There are several colour presets to choose from though, including sRGB. It also has dynamic colour-boosting tools that process what youre watching and adjust accordingly to enhance films and games. However, you should turn the tools off if youre editing photos and need more accurate colours. The tools proved distracting in our tests, boosting the dark scenes in our game so much that it felt like we were wearing night-vision goggles. However, its 5-millisecond response time ensured it didnt suffer from ghosting. You should use its HDMI port if you want to connect video devices such as a Freeview box, a games console or Blu-ray player. If you want to use its VGA or DVI ports to play video through external devices, it helpfully comes with a 3.5mm audio-in port, making it possible to connect the monitors internal audio from the device to the speakers. There is also a headphone socket, so you can listen without disturbing those around you. The internal speakers sound tinny, but are adequate for general Windows use. However, they arent really good enough for listening to music, films or games.
AOC I 2352 VH 128 www.ilgs.co.uk
VERDICT
If the Viewsonic VX2336s-LEDs lack of an HDMI port is a deal breaker for you, then the AOC i2352Vh fills the gap. The image quality isnt as good as the Viewsonics, bu but it has all the ports yo youll need, as well as bu built-in speakers. These ar arent as good as a se separate pair of speakers, bu but serve a useful purpose if you want to keep your de desk uncluttered. The fiddly menu makes it a bit tricky to set up, but once its configured, its a good-quality screen with accurate colours and good contrast.
SILVER AWARD
28 June 2012
21
GROUP TEST 23-24in MONITORS UNDER 200

EDGE 10 EF 240 A 101 www.micom.co.uk
The EF240a is a 23.6in monitor (rounded up to 24in in its official specification) and is the cheapest of all the screens we tested. It has Full HD resolution, and VGA and DVI inputs. The monitors stand only allows for tilting and should be adjusted with care. It doesnt have a wide viewing angle, so the quality diminishes if it is skewed too far. This means its not great for when several people are watching video on it, but is fine if you use it by yourself. The menu is controlled by buttons below the screen. However, they dont match the icons they are marked with, which is confusing. There are plenty of options to configure. Along with Brightness and Contrast, there are three Eco modes that dim the screen by increasing degrees and a dynamic-contrast option that adjusts the brightness depending on whats being displayed, though this causes sudden and distracting changes while watching films. It has a colour-temperature system, measured in Kelvin. Higher numbers produce cooler, bluer pictures, and lower numbers have warmer reds or yellows. The monitors presets are a cool 9,300K, or a more balanced 6,500K, which our colour-calibration tool recorded as 84 per cent of the sRGB standard. This is just about acceptable if you dont work with colour professionally. It can be improved with some tweaking, but youll need to use a calibration tool. Contrast is good. In the night-time airport scene in Casino Royale, we were able to make out the seams in the bad guys black leather shoes, while in the sunny scenes in the Bahamas, the pattern on Ms cream jacket was also visible. The built-in speakers are fine for Windows sounds and YouTube, but inferior to most standalone speakers.
VERDICT
If the most important thing for you is an affordable, large monitor, then you need look no further. This 23.6in model is a giant and yet its the cheapest model in our test. It doesnt use the newer IPS technology seen in the Viewsonic and AOC monitors win our Gold BRONZ that and Silver E AWARD Awards, so it has less colour depth and accuracy. Its viewing angles are also narrower.

The LG IPS235V is good looking and great value, with a brushed-metal-effect case, a graceful stand, an IPS screen and VGA, DVI and HDMI video ports. It comes with a headphone socket, but doesnt have speakers, so if you want to listen to an extra device, such as a game console plugged into the HDMI port, youll need to have separate speakers. The menu system is controlled by an unlabelled set of buttons located below the screen. Press one, and a pop-up appears with various options. To access image-quality options, you select a preset mode, which disables the standard controls, or choose the User mode to control the brightness, contrast and colour manually. We found the Movie and Photo modes blew colours out of proportion, over-saturating them and losing detail, while the Text mode was too dark. The sRGB mode produced the best colour balance, but we needed to turn the brightness up to get the most accurate colours as tested by our calibration tool. We left sharpness at its default, because it can add an unnecessary grain to the image. The IPS235Vs manual colour options are its secret weapon. Instead of choosing a preset colour temperature, such as Warm, Medium or Cool, you can select User and tweak the settings for six colours: red, green, blue, magenta, cyan and yellow. If you can lay your hands on a colourcalibration tool, you can manually set up perfect colour reproduction. However, even if you cant manually calibrate, the monitors sRGB mode produces warm, rich colours and excellent contrast. In our gaming test, the monitor didnt suffer from ghosting.
LG IPS 235 V 124 www.ilgs.co.uk
VERDICT
The IPS235V is a great-looking monitor that has a lot going for it. It has a full range of ports and features, including the IPS screen, which has good colour accuracy and viewing angles. The sRGB preset is decent enough, but if you can get hold of a colour-calibration tool, you can set this screen to near perfection with its manual settings that can adjust six colours. However, in the months since this won our Gold Award in Issue 285 (bit.ly/ issue285), it has been knocked out of our awards by three monitors with better image quality, more options or a larger screen for less money.
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28 June 2012
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IIYAMA PROLITE XB 2374 HDS-1 152 www.cclonline.com

Iiyamas XB2374HDS-1 has an IPS screen with a Full HD resolution. It has a simple matt-black plastic case with a fully adjustable stand and a choice of VGA, DVI or HDMI video inputs. The menu system is stripped to its essentials, and the four buttons below the screen are easy to use, conforming to the standard pattern of Menu, Back and two arrow keys to navigate. As well as brightness and contrast controls, theres a choice of Eco modes that dim the screen; a set of i-Style colour presets; and ACR (Advanced Contrast Ratio Iiyamas own dynamic-contrast setting that adjusts depending on whats on screen). The ACR setting is subtle and we didnt notice any dramatic shifts in brightness, but it disables the other controls and didnt add much to image quality. The presets are generally awful. The Text and Internet presets dim the image too much, while Game, Movie and Sports considerably reduce the contrast. You also get colour controls in the form of Gamma and Colour Temperature. Colour temperature is limited to Warm, Normal, Cool, User and sRGB. On the sRGB setting, our calibration tool reported a 91 per cent match with the sRGB standard, which was a bit low considering that it should deliver a near-perfect match. On the whole, however, the image quality is excellent. In Casino Royale, rich colours and warm fleshtones stood out, with strong contrast in dark scenes. Perhaps the biggest problem is the price. Its more expensive than both the Gold Awardwinning Viewsonic VX2336s-LED, which has a better screen, and the Silver Award-winning AOC i2352Vh, which has similar ports and features.
VERDICT
The Iiyama XB2374HDS-1 suffers from being more expensive than similar screens weve tested. While its IPS panel and good collection of ports earn it four stars, our top three award-winning monitors are better value, each beating this monitor on image quality, price and size. The picture quality is high, but not worth the extra cost.
PHILIPS E-LINE 237 E 3 QPHSU 178

www.pixmania.co.uk
IMAGE QUALITY FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY EASE OF USE
This Philips monitor is packed with impressive features IPS screen, Full HD resolution, two HDMI inputs but its pricey. And its energy-saving screen might save you money, but its too dim to let you adjust the colours to our standard settings. We found the touch-sensitive buttons werent sensitive enough, and its not clear where on the casing you need to touch to operate them. Luckily theres a Windows tool you can install in order to control the monitor from your PC. While the IPS screen is still better than older flat-screen monitors, it isnt as good as the other IPS screens we tested. The dark sections of our test game werent dark enough, and we saw some ghosting in fast-moving scenes, indicating that the response time isnt quick enough.
www.ilgs.co.uk
AG NEOVO U- 23 199
IMAGE QUALITY FEATURES VALUE FOR MONEY EASE OF USE

The AG Neovo U-23 has a glass-fronted screen, which is highly reflective but produces vibrant colour if you can keep the screen out of direct light. This adds a level of protection to the screen, which is helpful if youre planning to connect it to a family PC that is used a lot. The standard settings did quite well in our calibration test, getting to 88 per cent of the sRGB setting. The screen settings can be improved manually, using individual red, green and blue controls. The AG Neovos biggest problem is its price. Its very expensive, but doesnt add enough features, except the glass screen, to make it worth the extra money.
VERDICT
VERDICT
This Philips monitor looks good on paper, with its IPS screen and added extras such as a second HDMI port, but we found it disappointing to use because the energy-efficient screen isnt bright enough and the control buttons are fiddly. Last but not least, the price is too high.
This is an expensive monitor that fails to justify its price. Its one redeeming feature is its glass screen, which is sturdier and easier to care for than most monitors of this type. However, its default settings need to be tweaked to get the most out of it.
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28 June 2012
23-24in MONITORS UNDER 200 GROUP TEST

GOLD AWARD SILVER AWARD BRONZ E AWARD
MAKE MODEL WEBSITE PRICE SUPPLIER SIZE RESOLUTION CONTRAST RATIO BRIGHTNESS HORIZONTAL VIEWING ANGLE
Viewsonic VX2336s-LED www.viewsoniceurope .com 121 www.dabs.com 23in 1,920 x 1,080 pixels 1,000:1 250cd/m2 178
AOC i2352Vh www.aoc-europe.com 128 www.ilgs.co.uk 23in 1,920 x 1,080 pixels 1,000:1 250cd/m2 178 178 Yes (2 x 1W) VGA, DVI, HDMI Three-year collect and return
Edge10 EF240a www.edge10.com 101 www.micom.co.uk 23.6in 1,920 x 1,080 pixels 1,000:1 300cd/m2 170 160 Yes (2 x 2W) VGA, DVI Three-year on-site
LG IPS235V www.lg.com/uk 124 www.ilgs.co.uk 23in 1,920 x 1,080 pixels 1,000:1 250cd/m2 178 178 No VGA, DVI, HDMI Three-year on-site
Iiyama ProLite XB2374HDS-1 www.iiyama.co.uk 152 www.cclonline.com 23in 1,920 x 1,080 pixels 1,000:1 250cd/m2 178 178 Yes (2 x 2W) VGA, DVI, HDMI Two-year on-site (three with registration)
VERTICAL VIEWING ANGLE 178 INTEGRATED SPEAKERS VIDEO INPUTS WARRANTY No VGA, DVI Three-year return to base
VERDICT
The Viewsonic VX2336s-LED provides fantastic colour accuracy from the moment you plug it in, which makes it ideal for people with no access to colour-calibration tools. The only drawback of this monitor is that it doesnt have an HDMI port. If an HDMI is absolutely crucial to you, the AOC i2352Vh is a great alternative. It has good colour accuracy and contrast, but costs a little bit more. The Bronze Award-winning Edge10 EF240a has a slightly bigger 23.6in screen, which monitor manufacturers round up to 24in. It isnt as high-quality as our Gold and Silver Award winners, but is cheaper than both, despite its bigger size.
GOLD AWARD
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WEB USERS BEST BUYS

HARDWARE
AUDIO STREAMER
Logitech Squeezebox Touch
200 from www.currys.co.uk Date tested: June 2012 The Squeezebox Touch plugs into your existing stereo and provides a simple interface that makes it easy to stream music from your PC.
Web User and its sister titles test over 2,500 products every year. Heres the pick of the bunch
NEW!
COMPACT PC
Lenovo IdeaCentre Q180
349 from www.ebuyer.com Date tested: June 2012 The Blu-ray drive and large hard drive make this the perfect mini-PC for film fans.
NEW!
KEY SPECS
1 x 10/100 Ethernet port 802.11g Wi-Fi Outputs: 1 x mini-jack headphone, 1 x stereo phono, 1 x coaxial S/ PDIF, 1 x optical S/PDIF USB SDHC card reader Remote control Logitech Squeeze Server software 91 x 150 x 80mm
KEY SPECS
2.13GHz Intel Atom D2700 processor 4GB memory 8GB maximum memory Lenovo Tiger Hill motherboard 750GB hard drive AMD Radeon HD 6450A graphics VGA and HDMI ports Realtek ALC662 sound card Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit DVD rewriter Blu-ray reader 193 x 41 x 153mm
NAS DRIVE
Western Digital My Book Live Duo 4TB
293 from www.wdc.com/en Date tested: May 2012 Its easy to use, you get lots of storage space, and you dont have to construct it from an empty NAS shell and hard drives.
BUDGET SOLID-STATE DRIVE

Corsair Force GT 240GB GB
153 from www.microdirect.co.uk Date tested: May 2012 The Force GT consistently impressed in our benchmark tests, recording excellent write and read speeds eeds for both large and small files. Few w other drives manage to combine such high igh speeds eed with ith good od val value.
KEY SPECS
2 x 2TB drives 2 x drive bays Replaceable drives 1 x USB 2 port Android, BlackBerry, iOS apps pps External hard drive supported UPnP/DLNA, iTunes iTu supported RAID1 back-up 99 x 157 x 165mm
KEY SPECS
60-480GB capacities 3-year warranty SandForce 2281 controller SATA 6GB/s 2.5-3.5in bracket
LASER PRINTER
Epson AcuLaser C1750N
113 from www.epson.co.uk Date tested: April 2012
All prices correct at time of review
BUDGET LAPTOP
Acer Aspire 5750
450 from www.saveonlaptops.co.uk Date tested: April 2012 It doesnt have the fastest processor, but the Aspire delivers a balanced performance across the board. For 450, a budget-priced get-priced all-rounder.
This unobtrusive compact colour laser is perfect for personal use, because its cheap to buy and run. . It isnt particularly fast compared with other printers, but both monochrome text and colour prints look excellent.
KEY SPECS
600 x 600 dpi resolution 128MB memory USB, 10/100 Ethernet ports Up to A4 maximum paper size 163gsm maximum paper weight 100 sheets output tray capacity 234 x 394 x 304mm 10.6kg
KEY SPECS
2.1GHz Intel Core i3-2310M processor 6GB memory 640GB hard disk 15.6in screen 1,366 x 768 pixels resolution Nvidia GeForce GT 540M & Intel HD Graphics 3000 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 382 x 253 x 35mm 2.52kg
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28 June 2012
WEB USERS BEST BUYS

SOFTWARE & SERVICES
SYNCING
Google Drive
Free for 5GB from drive.google.com Date tested: May 2012 Google Drive is easy to use and has plenty of tools and options if you want to delve deeper. Theres a reasonable amount of space available for free, and adding more storage space doesnt cost too much.
DISC BURNING
Roxio Creator 2012 Pro
69.99 from www.roxio.co.uk Date tested: March 2012 Roxios burning software is well organised and easy to use. However, its only worth the price if youre going to use the extra VideoWave and PhotoSuite software bundled with it.
KEY FEATURES
Android app Web interface Edit files on web File-sharing PC and Mac 30 viewable file types Old versions saved for 30 days
KEY FEATURES
Blu-ray, DVD and CD burning Video- and image-editing software Back-up tools Audio cleaning Disc copier
ONLINE PHOTO PRINTING

FOTO.com
5p per 6 x 4in print from uk.foto.com Date tested: Jan 2012 FOTO.com gives you lots of printing options, a huge range of novelty items and plenty of ways to upload your photos. But most ti importantly, rtantl it has th the best-quality prints.
PHOTO EDITING
Adobe Photoshop Elements 10
51.97 from adobe.ly/elements291 Date tested: May 2012 Its a wonder that even professionals would pay more than 650 for Photoshop when Adobes fantastic Elements has a huge number of almost identical tools for 52.
KEY FEATURES
Web interface Order via Facebook, Flickr and Picasa 2-3 days delivery JPEG format 15MB maximum file size
KEY FEATURES
Object search Facebook photo-tagging Orton Effect Crop guides Curving and flowing text Save photos as JPEGs and PDFs Upload to YouTube
ANTI-VIRUS
Bitdefender Internet Security 2012
18.49 (One year, one PC) from www.kikatek.com Date tested: Jan 2012 Its hard to find fault with Bitdefender because it has so much going for it. The software coped with all the security problems we threw at it and achieved a perfect score in our falsepositive tests.
VIDEO EDITING
Serif MoviePlus X5 HD
59.99 from www.serif.com Date tested: Oct 2011 This straightforward, easy-to-use video editor isnt much to look at, but its extremely functional and provides a wealth of effects and tools. Theres also integrated on-screen help thats worth exploring.
KEY FEATURES
Real-time protection Email scanning Web-link scanner Rescue disc Firewall Parental controls Spam filtering
KEY FEATURES
Image stabiliser Export video as AVCHD, AVI, MOV, MPEG 2/4, WMV Upload to YouTube DVD and Blu-ray disc authoring Unlimited timelines
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28 June 2012
BEST FREE SOFTWARE

This fortnights top FREE software downloads
Auslogics BitReplica
BACK-UP SOFTWARE
DOW
19 F
N LO
REE
A DS
www.bitreplica.com Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 5.2MB The latest free tool from Auslogics will quickly back up all your important documents, photos and other files. To start, youll need to create a new profile, then select some items to back up. You do this by ticking any of the predefined choices, which include Desktop, My Documents, My Pictures, Firefox Profile, Chrome Profile and so on. You can also add your own folders. Click Next to choose a destination to save the files to. Youre limited to local or external drives because theres no option for burning data to DVD or uploading it to the web. If you have lots of drives installed or connected, clicking the Suggest best location link will pick the most suitable one. You can then choose the type of back-up to perform. The softwares choice of methods include Simple Copy, Synchronisation Backup, Full (with compression options), and Incremental and Differential. Incremental backs up just the files that have changed since the last back-up, while Differential targets those that have changed since the last full back-up.
You can also schedule when you want back-ups to run. This can be manually, hourly, daily or weekly, and you can specify the date and time. The Advanced settings screen lets you exclude
certain files, back up alternative data streams (including security information, such as access permissions for files), verify data and set specific applications to run before or after any back-ups.
ghostbuster.codeplex.com Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 1.2MB Each time you connect a new piece of hardware to your computer, Windows will add a reference to it to the Registry. GhostBuster identifies references to old devices you no longer use, such as past DVD drives or long-since replaced mice, and lets you remove them. As with any program that makes changes to the Registry, you should use it with care, and create a System Restore point before removing any items. Well have a guide to using GhostBuster in the next issue of Web User.
GhostBuster
REGISTRY CLEANER
Ezvid
VIDEO CREATOR
www.ezvid.com Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7/8 File size: 95MB With this free video editor and slideshow creator, you can add video clips, images and audio, record voiceovers and on-screen activity (good for instructional videos), and add text. You can give your work a title and description, choose a category and add keywords. You can then upload directly to YouTube. Decline the AVG Security toolbar when you install Ezvid.
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28 June 2012
BEST FREE SOFTWARE

THREE OF A KIND
PC SEARCH TOOLS
www.ultrafilesearch.com Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 2.8MB This powerful search tool can find any files or folders on your computer. It doesnt index your hard drive or waste resources, and lets you search inside files and track down items by date or size.
UltraFileSearch Lite
ESET Rogue Application Remover

bit.ly/eset295 Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 2.6MB Rogue applications, such as those masquerading as free anti-virus tools, can be difficult to spot and remove. This program scans your system looking for possible threats and gives you the chance to delete any suspicious items. There arent any user options to get to grips with, though there are a few command-line switches aimed at more experienced users.
SECURITY TOOL
www.wisecleaner.com Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 2MB This program adds a small, slide-down search panel to the top of your screen so its always accessible. You can choose which drives to search, enter some keywords and filter the results by name, path, size and date.
Wise JetSearch
TASK SWITCHER
sourceforge.net/projects/mcsoft Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 191KB This tiny tool recreates the Expose task-switcher tool from Mac OS X in Windows. When you run Mission Control, all your open windows will be displayed as large thumbnails. Click one to switch to it, or right-click to zoom in for a better look. Similar items are grouped together, and hovering your mouse over a pile of thumbnails will let you choose the window you want.
Mission Control
PowerDirector 10 Ultra
competitions.webuser.co.uk
Priced 79.99, the new version of CyberLinks award-winning video-editing software contains an upgraded TrueVelocity rendering engine, new special effects and 3D editing. You can add your own creative touches with the Free Hand Drawing Tool, and record your hand-drawn work to integrate it into your video projects. You can also apply time-distortion effects and action speed control. For more information, visit www.cyberlink.com.
COMPETITION
WIN 1 OF 3 COPIES !
www.joshcellsoftwares.com Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 415KB
Instant File Search Professional
This simple search tool lets you find files by name, extension, location, size and creation or modification date. You can choose to look for files with similar names to your search terms.
Recommend free downloads at www.facebook.com/webusermagazine
28 June 2012
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Firefox 13
BROWSER
www.getfirefox.com Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS X or Linux File size: 15.8MB New, stable builds of Firefox are released regularly, but most offer little in the way of additional features. Firefox 13 is an exception. On the new Start page, youll find shortcuts to downloads, bookmarks, history, add-ons, sync, settings and an option to restore the previous session. Theres also a New Tab page, which displays clickable thumbnails of your most recently visited sites. The useful new tabs-on-demand feature makes Firefox start faster by only loading tabs from a previous session when you click them. Additionally, typing about:support into the address bar will give you the option of resetting Firefox to its default settings.
AOMEI Partition Assistant 5.0 Home Edition

www.disk-partition.com Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 3.4MB
PARTITIONING TOOL
AOMEIs partitioning software lets you divide a large hard drive into smaller drives, which is useful for tasks such as separating your operating system from your data. You can also use it to resize, move, merge, split and copy partitions, allocate free space from one partition to another, copy your OS from a hard drive to a solid-state drive, and more. The latest version can recover lost or damaged partitions, rebuild the master boot record and run from a bootable CD. Its new interface is much easier to use, and all its features are available to use without needing to upgrade to a paid version.
Diluvium
GAME
bit/ly/game295 Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 or Mac OS X File size: 17.9MB
The aim of this game is to create animal totems comprising up to three creatures stacked on top of each other and send them into battle against a rival summoner (either a friend or a computer-controlled character). You make your totem by typing three animal names, and speed is of the essence. Your totems will attack your rivals creations and, if they manage to get through them, will then tackle the summoner. Each creature has its own stats, that cover speed, attack power, health and intelligence, and there are 284 animal names to choose from.
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BEST FREE SOFTWARE

READER RECOMMENDS Happy Jets of Water
bit.ly/happy295 Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 18.2MB Immerse yourself in a world of nonaggressive game play in this arena-based shooter. With neither blood, guts or death on the menu, you can either fight against computer-controlled bots or with another player using water guns. There are lots of characters and non-lethal weapons to unlock, as well as seven different maps and a choice of four game modes Soakem All, Team Wetmatch, Fill the Bucket and Steal the Dog.
GAME
When youre taking photos, a good shot often depends on the quality of light and the position of the sun. The Photographers Ephemeris (photoephemeris.com) helps you calculate the best time to visit a particular place and to get the light just right in order to get that great shot. Nutchoc, via Web User Forums
Kaspersky Security Scan

www.kaspersky.co.uk/security-scan Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 42MB If you suspect your PC might be infected with malware that your current anti-virus program isnt detecting, you can use this free tool from Kaspersky to check. It will also identify various software vulnerabilities and other security issues, although it cant fix the problems it finds: youll need to install another program to do that.
SECURITY TOOL
UPDATED New tweaks and fixes for your favourite programs

SYSTEM TOOL
CCleaner for Mac 1.03

bit.ly/ccleaner295 Min requirements: Mac OS X 10.5 File size: 1.7MB The new Mac version of the popular system-cleaning tool includes more detailed analysis and cleaning results, secure deletion and improved detection of applications to uninstall. You can also use it to clean your browser while its still running.
files to free up space and make your PC run up to 30 per cent faster than before. There have also been some minor tweaks to the interface.
BROWSER
waterfoxproject.org Min requirements: Windows 7 x64 File size: 23.6MB With a new version of Firefox available to download, its 64-bit counterpart, Waterfox, has also been updated and has fixed a few problems. We gave the super-speedy browser a Gold Award in our comparison of Firefox alternatives in Issue 290 (bit.ly/issue290).
Waterfox 13
DOWNLOAD MANAGER
www.freedownloadmanager.org Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 6.87MB Free Download Manager is already bursting with features, so its probably wise that this update concentrates on fixing bugs rather than adding tools. Support for the latest versions of Firefox, including 14 Beta, is now available.
Free Download Manager 3.9
MUSIC PLAYER
Freemake Music Box 0.93
SYSTEM TOOL
www.piriform.com/defraggler Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 3.35MB A significant increase in speed is the biggest change to this free drive-defragmentation tool. You can now tidy your
Defraggler 2.10
www.freemake.com Min requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7 File size: 16.84MB This music-streaming tool, which we first recommended in Issue 285 (bit.ly/issue285), has been updated to improve its sound quality, search speed and video playback. It now suggests matches when youre searching for an artist, album or song, and you can drag and drop tracks to playlists.
Recommend free downloads at www.facebook.com/webusermagazine
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BEST FREE APPS

MOBILE PAYMENTS
bit.ly/paypal295 Min requirements: Android 2.1+, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iOS 4.2+ File size: 1.6MB PayPal has a mobile app (bit.ly/pay295), which lets you manage your PayPal account, make and receive payments to and from others, and pay for items online. With the new inStore app, you can also use PayPal to pay for items when shopping on the high street. To buy something, sign into the app and
This fortnights top FREE smartphone and tablet apps
PayPal inStore
youll be given a unique barcode. Scan this barcode at the checkout and the store will use your PayPal account to make the payment. If you have multiple bank accounts or cards linked to your account, you can choose which one to use, or set a default. The app has launched in a limited number of shops, including Warehouse, Coast, Oasis and Karen Millen, with more coming soon.
QR codes
PayPal inStore
Socialcam
VIDEO
SECURITY
Socialcam
bit.ly/social295 Min requirements: Android 2.1+, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iOS 4.3+ File size: 1.1MB Socialcam gives you an easier way to record and upload videos to the web. Unlike YouTube and Vimeo, it comes with free, unlimited video length and storage options. Its built-in camera lets you upload videos while youre recording them, as well as record videos offline. You can tag friends and share videos through social networks, Dropbox, and via email and text.
Loky
bit.ly/loky295 Min requirements: Android 2.2+ File size: 1.7MB Loky automatically backs up all your phones contacts, photos, videos and texts online. It comes with 5GB of free storage, or you can pay 11.99 for Loky Plus (bit.ly/ lokyplus295) to get 10GB. You can access your data from anywhere, as well as retrieve and export it to another device if your phone is lost or stolen. For extra safety, the Loky app can be secured with a PIN.
Loky
Last.fm Festivals
FESTIVALS
bit.ly/last295 Min requirements: Android 1.6+, iPhone, iPod Touch, iOS 4.0+ File size: 597KB Last.fms Festivals app is a must if youre planning a trip to an event this year. Its crammed with information about which bands are playing where, as well as dates, prices and the background to each festival and its performers. If you have a Last.fm account, the app also provides recommendations and will tell you how compatible a festival is, based on your listening history.
GAME
Last.fm Festivals
bit.ly/grub295 Min requirements: Android 1.6+, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iOS 3.1+, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry Playbook 2.0+ File size: 20MB If you liked the Snake game on the original Nokia phones, youll love Doodle Grub. Tilt your phone to make the on-screen grub collect apples. The more apples you get, the longer you grow, but be careful not to bump into enemies. Doodle Grub is free on Android and iOS, but costs 1.49 on Windows Phone and BlackBerry.
Doodle Grub
Doodle Grub
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BEST FREE APPS

SHOPPING
bit.ly/amazon295 Min requirements: Android 1.5+, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iOS 3.0+, Windows Phone 7.5+ File size: 1MB Amazons Mobile app is now available on Windows Phone, as well as Android and iOS. It lets you browse, buy and sell items on the move, and scan barcodes so you can compare the stores prices with those on the high street. You can also add items to your wish list, set up 1-Click ordering, change your payment options, edit other account details and view your order history.
SHARES
bit.ly/flexi295 Min requirements: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iOS 5.0+ File size: 2.3MB FlexiShareTrade lets you track shares in real time, whether its your own portfolio or just out of curiosity. It lets you browse information for specific companies, industries and sectors, and see charts for each share and index ranging from one day up to five years. There are also news and Twitter feeds that keep you up to date with whats going on in stock markets across the world.
Amazon Mobile
FlexiShareTrade
QR codes
Amazon Mobile
FlexiShareTrade
VOICEMAIL
bit.ly/hullo295 Min requirements: Android 1.5+, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iOS 3.0+, BlackBerry 4.5+ File size: 1.6MB HulloMail turns your voicemails into text, so you can check your messages without having to call your voicemail. This is handy when youre in a quiet location or dont want to use up your minutes. Helpfully, HulloMail tells you if you miss a call when your phone is off or doesnt have any signal, even if the caller doesnt leave a voicemail.
TRAINS
HulloMail
First Great Western
HulloMail
bit.ly/fgw295 Min requirements: Android 1.6+, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iOS 4.0+, Windows Phone 7.5+, BlackBerry 4.5+, Symbian File size: 3.5MB This app can be used by anyone, not just people travelling on First Great Western, to find and book train tickets on journeys across the UK. By booking directly through First Great Western, you can also get discounted tickets and enjoy unique offers that arent available through sites such as National Rail Enquiries and Thetrainline.com.
First Great Western
NEW APPS WORTH PAYING FOR N

malicious, then lets you uninstall any dodgy ones in one swipe. File size: Varies with device Price: 2.99 This app puts a virtual star chart in your pocket. Point your phones camera at the sky and the app will use augmented reality and GPS to show you what youre looking at in real time.
F-Secure Mobile Security
SECURITY SECU
bit.ly/secure295 Min requirements: Android 2.2+ File size: 9MB Price: 8.08 F-Secure Mobile Security helps you lock and locate your phone if its stolen. It has easy-to-use parental controls and automatically blocks web pages that contain malware.
READER
APPS
Clueful
bit.ly/clueful295 Min requirements: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iOS 5.0+ File size: 5.9MB Price: 2.49 Bitdefenders Clueful app shows the information that apps on your phone have access to and which ones look
bit.ly/paper295 Min requirements: Android 2.2+, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iOS 5.0+ File size: 3.1MB Price: 1.93 Instapaper saves web pages so you can read them offline. It optimises the pages for your phone or tablet by removing formatting and pictures. You can customise fonts, sizes and spacing.
Instapaper
HISTORY
ASTRONOMY
Star Chart
bit.ly/star295 Min requirements: Android (varies with device)
bit.ly/royal295 Min requirements: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iOS 4.3+ File size: 244MB Price: 1.49 This fascinating collection of Royal films includes speeches by George VI, the Queens coronation and Prince Williams wedding. All films are narrated by Helen Baxendale.
Museum of London Royal Timetrip
Recommend free phone apps at www.facebook.com/webusermagazine
28 June 2012
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BEST NEW ADD-ONS

This fortnights 10 most useful tools for your browser CHROME
bit.ly/ehistory295 This add-on lets you enhance Chromes History feature to make it easier to find specific pages youve visited previously. You can search between two dates, within websites and URLs, and for page titles, and quickly delete selected entries, just your search results or your entire history.
eHistory
bit.ly/seeit295 If you ever browse the popular content-sharing site Reddit (reddit.com), this add-on is a must. SeeIt lets you preview Reddit articles, photos and videos simply by hovering your mouse over them, without opening the source page.
SeeIt
bit.ly/banned295 Based on the book The Banned List by John Rentoul, this extension highlights jargon, clich and management speak on the web. Each page you visit is scored out of 10 for banned words and phrases, such as decent, in terms of, and going forward. You can then share the results on Twitter.
BannedList Highlighter
Facebook Fast Delete Messages
bit.ly/face295 Deleting a message from your Facebook inbox usually involves clicking the Actions menu, choosing Delete Messages, selecting the message and then clicking Delete Selection. With this add-on, all you need to do is click the x next to the message, just like deleting a comment. Much easier!
FIREFOX
Big Clock Background
bit.ly/bigclock295 This add-on displays a large clock when you open a new tab, which tells you the current time and date. So you can either rejoice that its nearly time to go home from work, despair because youve still got several hours left, or fret about how long youve wasted browsing the web.
OPERA
bit.ly/theme295 This add-on lets you personalise Opera by creating your own themes for the browser. Select an image to use from a web page, give your theme a name, choose Best Fit or Tiled and click Try out your theme. Note that this add-on requires the Opera 12 beta (www.opera .com/browser/next).
Opera Theme Creator
The Grim Tab Reaper
bit.ly/grim295 If you often have too many tabs open, this Firefox add-on can help. It automatically closes tabs when theyve been inactive for a set amount of time (by default this is 48 hours, but you can reduce it to one hour), and saves the pages as bookmarks in your Recent Tags folder.
Quo Vadis
bit.ly/quovadis295 This add-on shows you the full web address behind short URLs created using services such as Bit.ly and Goo.gl. Unlike similar tools, Quo Vadis works on links that have been redirected through several services, so you always know what youre clicking on.
Just Restart
bit.ly/just295 Although you need to restart Firefox to install and remove many add-ons, theres no shortcut to do so (other than choosing Help, Restart with Add-ons Disabled). Install this add-on and you can restart the browser by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Z.
bit.ly/ webcache295 If youre having problems loading a web page, you can use this add-on to view a cached (saved) version. Webcache lets you choose from Google, Blekko (blekko.com) and Wayback Machine (web.archive.org) caches, but warns that changes may have been made since the page was saved.
Webcache
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28 June 2012
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INBOX INBOX
INBOX
STAR EMAIL
CONTACT US
Share your views!
You can let us know your views and opinions via webuser@dennis.co.uk, www.facebook. com/webusermagazine, www.twitter.com/ webusermagazine and forum.webuser.co.uk
US beats UK for web importance
had to chuckle at David Forsters Star Email in Issue 294 (Proud to be a British web user), in which he, rather feebly, waved the Union Jack to celebrate all things webby and British. Of the 10 reasons he picked, only one is really worth celebrating, and thats Sir Tim BernersLees creation of the web in the first place. Without that, Web User wouldnt exist, and nor would this letter (though Id probably be writing to another magazine to moan about something else). As for the other points he made, well, I think Mr Forster has got carried away by all the patriotic guff weve had to endure this summer. In all seriousness, how can he list the Royals on YouTube, or Lovelm, as reasons to be proud? Its quite obvious which country should be congratulating itself
for leading the internet revolution, and it has one more letter than the UK. Yes, the USA has given us Google, eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, Chrome, Android, YouTube, Facebook, the iPad, the iPhone, and so on. Martha Lane Fox really isnt in the same league as Steve Jobs, or the Google geniuses Sergey Brin and Larry Page. And lets not mention our pathetic broadband speeds, or the governments eagerness to spy on what we do online. Sure, were a smaller country, and our economy is up the creek, but we should still be able to punch above our
weight. Instead, its to Scandinavia avia where we should uld look for a European challenge to the US. Take Spotify and Skype, for example, both brilliant Scandinavian services that wipe the oor with Lovelm and Friends Reunited. Remember, these are countries with populations around the same size as Greater Londons (and even smaller, in Denmarks case)! So lets have a bit more perspective please. Theres no doubt that Britain is packed with millions of people who love the web, but were living in the shadow of both bigger and smaller countries who invented the internet 15 years ago, and are now re-inventing it. Well continue to love the web, but lets not kid ourselves that were an important part of it. Ray Sutherland, via email
winn
25er
Furious about Firefox changes
Firefox 13 is a pain! I used to be able to download les by selecting one with the mouse and holding down Alt as I clicked it. I used to get a Save as window to select where I saved a le. I dont get either anymore. This downloading method has disappeared in 13. I now have to go through two steps to download any le. I also lost all my add-ons and my favourite set of tabs for sites I visit often. Please let me have Firefox 3.5 again. It was the version I fell in love with. Otherwise I will have to see if Chrome will work better for me after a decade of using Netscape and Firefox. Wilf James, via email Web User replies: We know how annoying it can be when your favourite tools dont work in new versions of
browsers, so part of the Expert Tips section in our next issue, out on Thursday 12 July, will show you how to revert back to previous incarnations of Firefox.
WIN A WEB B USER MUG! !

Weve got a new batch of Web User mugs to give away, perfect for a hot beverage while you browse. g one o To stand a chance of winning l us which this fortnight, just tell operating system you use. If you use Windows, please tell us which version. Email us at webuser@dennis .co.uk, and well pick three winners at random. Good luck!
Stop underestimating Dropbox
The last two times you have tested online storage or syncing services, you have quite rightly included Dropbox. Each time, however, I feel you have sold it short. You have downgraded it because it only offers 2GB of free storage, which puts it below most of the competition. You really should have mentioned the ways it is possible to increase your storage for free. You can refer friends to the service and receive 500MB for each friend that signs up (earning up to a maximum of 16GB free storage). Another great feature you failed to mention is that if you install the Android app, you can congure it to automatically upload any photo or video you take on your phone to Dropbox. The rst time you do this, you
FREE MUG!
get an extra 500MB, and if you continue to use it, you can get an extra 3GB. I currently have just over 6GB of storage all of which Ive got for free. The next time you review Dropbox, please mention the ways that you can increase your storage for free. Andrew Duerden, via email
Air your views, write to us at webuser@dennis.co.uk
28 June 2012
37
Kindle lacks library books
I couldnt help noticing that in your review of the Kindle Touch (Issue 293, bit.ly/issue293), you made no mention of its inability to access library books in the UK. For many pensioners like myself, the ability to borrow e-books from a local library and to read them at home on an e-reader has become an essential part of life, especially if you cant get out much. I have several pensioner friends who have bought Kindles, knowing that their local library has an e-book section, only to be disappointed by the fact that the format of the library books is not KOBO (which is Amazons own Kindle format) but EPUB (the format used by most other readers). In my opinion, the Kindle (all varieties) lacks the one killer feature that other, cheaper e-readers (such as the Kobo) have, and thats the ability to borrow library books. It does have several other features unrelated to reading, but for a reader, the
Your Shout
Are you going to buy a new PC in the next 12 months?
Are you worried about personal data collected by Googles Street View cars? Vote online at www.webuser.co.uk
ON WEBUSER.CO.UK THIS FORTNIGHT WE ASKED
18% 18% 21%
No, I dont need to
NEXT FORTNIGHT
43%
No, I want to but cant afford it Maybe Yes, denitely
ability to read free books that you have borrowed from the library is not an extra feature it is an essential one. Dick Underwood, via email
Children more important than web rights
What planet is Jim Dunnett on (Govt snooping will lead to web censorship, Inbox, Issue 293)? What have either Jean Charles de Menezes or Ian Tomlinson got to do with government snooping? I was unaware that either of those cases
involved censorship issues. Mr Dunnett does not understand the priorities of the security services, who are too busy worrying about terrorists to fret over what porn lms are being watched. Why are people so afraid of a sensible approach that goes a long way to protecting the real victims children? They cannot make well-informed choices, and thats whats important, not Mr Dunnetts rights. Paul Hildreth, via email
THIS FORTNIGHTS CROSSWORD

Clues marked with an asterisk are cryptic and refer to sites and software featured in this issue of Web User. All other clues are literal. Answers online at www.webuser.co.uk/ crossword.
5 7 8
9 10 11 12 15 17 18 19 20 21 13 16 14
ACROSS
1. *In headless horse house, choose a restaurant-booking service (3,5) 7. The ____, The Witch and The Wardrobe, CS Lewis (4) 9. *Vital uid contained in search returned for a login manager (7) 10. ___ Jeeves, search engine (3) 11. Short word for publication (3) 13. *Attachments return in English to make an add-on that previews Reddit articles (3,2) 15. Measure of time (4) 16. County in Ireland (4) 18. *Stiffen painting to produce app that recognises constellations (4,5) 19. Computer studies (1,1,1) 20. Experimental musician Brian (3) 21. *Without restraining underwear, free rein provides app reviews (2,7)
DOWN
2. Browser (5) 3. Measure, worm or deck prex (4) 4. *See 12 Down 5. Spanish denite article (2) 6. Musician and artist, Yoko (3) 8. *Damage is apparent for app that removes formatting from web pages (10) 10. Target (3)
11. *(With 14 down) Blend crimson lotions to produce a task-switching tool (7,7) 12. *(With 4 down) Could be Peter Venkman, Raymond Stanz, Egon Spengler or a Registry cleaner (5,6) 13. Indonesian island (7) 14. *See 11 down 17. Body of water (5)
Crossword created using Crossword Compiler software, from WordWeb Software (www.wordwebsoftware.com).
38
28 June 2012
INBOX INBOX
What you say...
This is not easy, but no. Facebook is no more responsible than the Royal Mail is for dropping a poison-pen letter on your doormat. Richard Morgan
YOUR ONLINE
RIGHTS
HAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT SKYPE SHOWING ADVERTS DURING CALLS?

I dont care. Its a class service. Fine by me if they want to show ads. Pat Farren It may be annoying, but if its a free service, should we be complaining? Elahi Shah Amin Everyone is entitled to complain. Just because its free doesnt mean we need to have in-your-face ads. Better to keep them subtle instead of blocking some of the video. I close ads as soon as they pop up. Branden Grant I hate adverts, but Im willing to put up with them if its a piece of software I use often and I use Skype all the time. James McGinnis Itll be massively irritating and will turn a lot of business users off. Chris Owen
HAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN ONLINE SHOP THAT IS CHARGING PEOPLE MORE TO USE INTERNET EXPLORER 7?
Seems perfectly reasonable to me. If people will insist on using an out-ofdate browser that is full of security holes, then they deserve to pay more for the privilege. Its quite simple to avoid paying the extra use a proper, updated browser. Greysts Ridiculous. I have IE7 on one of my computers and am quite happy with it. Cant see the point in upgrading. If it aint broke, etc. Cidermaker Ingenious! I do agree that getting your site to function properly in an old browser is an absolute nightmare. Donna Plakhtienko Ha! You would have to pay me to use any version of IE! Heather Husler
Vicky Woollaston answers all your consumer questions
Code of conduct for daily-deals sites
O YOU THINK FACEBOOK SHOULD BE FORCED TO REVEAL THE IDENTITY OF PEOPLE ABUSING OTHERS?
Facebook should provide the option to report abuse, but it shouldnt be enforced. Emmy Von-Sweetie Depends. If its something like telling someone to shut up if they are making stupid comments, then no. But if its strategic bullying and trolling, then yes. Adam Law Well, yes and no. If its just kids messing around then no, but if they are bullying someone, then yes because too many kids have taken their own lives because of bullying. The law will have to let users know what they call abuse. Shawn Adams
HAT PC MONITOR DO YOU USE?
I have a Technika 21in HD monitor. I play my PS3 on it, too. Lee Womack A Dell 24in. Had it for six years and its a great piece of kit. Jason Stefanowicz A 24in LG widescreen monitor and a 23in Median Flat Pro monitor. Difarn I dont use a PC monitor. Instead, I use a Samsung LED TV. That way I have the best of both worlds. Goovilla A nice big NEC MultiSync LCD, which is large enough for me. Donny Trusack A 22in LG monitor as a second monitor on my 21.5in iMac. Evilmonkeyzz
ots of Web User readers have contacted us over the last few months to complain about daily-deals sites, so were pleased that that the Global Daily Deal Association (GDDA) has launched a code of conduct (bit.ly/code295) to protect you when using them. The code bans sites offering misleading deals, and insists that the price, discount, description and terms and conditions must be shown on each offer page. Importantly, sites are not allowed to say something is free if its only free when bought with something else. Sites must now show a clear refund policy on the homepage and at every stage of the transaction. Also, sites must now tell you whether you need to contact them or the company providing the offer if anything goes wrong such as the goods not being as advertised. This is crucial, because previously there was a grey area over who was responsible for dealing with problems, as we explained in Issue 275 (bit.ly/issue275). All email newsletters sent by daily-deals sites must now be opt-in, which means you wont accidentally sign up to anything you dont want to receive. You must also be able to contact the site by at least one method either phone, email, postal address or online chat. This is a legal requirement for all UK businesses. Although the code is voluntary, any site that signs up to it must adhere to its rules. Sites that have signed up include DiscountVouchers .co.uk and Travelzoo, though, disappointingly not Groupon (see the full list at bit.ly/member295). If you think a site has breached the code, you can contact the GDDA at support@gdda.com. If a site is found guilty by the Code Authority, it can be fined or, in extreme or repeat cases, shut down.
SEND YOUR EMAILS TO WEBUSER@DENNIS.CO.UK
Air your views, write to us at webuser@dennis.co.uk
28 June 2012
39
AN INSTANT EXPERT GUIDE TO
Microsofts new Surface tablet looks like it could be a serious rival to the iPad. Daniel Booth tells you what you need to know
easily prop it up like a laptop screen. Panos Panay, a member of the Microsoft Surface design team, said that attaching the kickstand will feel and sound like a high end car door. But the standout feature will be the two keyboards, called the Type Cover and Touch Cover, which turn the Surface into a laptop sort of.
Microsoft Surface tablet
Q
A
Q
A
WHAT IS IT?
Surface (www.surface.com) is the name of Microsofts new range of tablet PCs, designed to work on Windows 8 or Windows RT (a version of Windows 8 for tablets that only runs apps, like a tablet-based version of Windows Phone). There are two types one powered by an Intel processor, the other by an NVIDIA ARM processor.
can run software built for earlier editions of Windows. The ARM tablets are much thinner, at 9.3mm thick, and run Windows RT. They will have 32GB or 64GB of storage space. To see lots of colourful photos of the Surface, visit Microsofts About page: bit .ly/surface295. You can watch a Surface advert on YouTube at bit.ly/surfacead295.
You attach the keyboard to the Surface, to make typing easier. The Touch Cover is a 3mm-thick capacitive keyboard, which feels similar to typing on a touchscreen. The Type Cover is 5mm thick and provides a more traditional typing experience, like typing on a laptop. Either keyboard can be used on both Surface models. Excited by the potential popularity of these keyboards, Microsoft says Surface is designed to seamlessly transition between consumption and creation, without compromise.
HOW DO THESE KEYBOARDS WORK?
Q
A
40
The Intel tablets run Windows 8 Pro, are 13.5mm thick and will be available with 64GB or 128GB of storage space. These will run the touchscreen Metro interface and an updated version of the standard operating system, so you
WHATS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO?
Q
A
Its the first computer Microsoft has built, which makes it a landmark product no matter how good it actually is. And it certainly looks great, thanks to the new VaporMg casing which, according to Microsoft, creates a finish akin to a luxury watch. It also comes with a kickstand, which means you can
WHATS SPECIAL ABOUT THEM?
Q
A
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
It means it can be easily used for creation, by typing an email or Word document as you would on a laptop, and consumption, by passively watching a video as you would on the iPad. In other words, it has the best of both worlds. Microsoft will hope that it appeals to people who want a tablet, but
28 June 2012
Discuss these tablets at forum.webuser.co.uk
MICROSOFT SURFACE
devices. It looks like the Pro version wont contain Office.
Q
A
The Surface can be used with either the Touch Cover or the Type Cover keyboard
HANG ON, ARENT THERE OTHER WINDOWS TABLETS BEING BUILT?
What you say...
think typing or browsing the web is too difficult on an iPad. Microsoft says that typing on the Surface, using the keyboards, is twice as efficient as typing on glass. Take that, Apple!
Yes. Dell, Nokia, Lenovo, Acer and Asus have all said they will be manufacturing Windows 8 tablets. However, its difficult to see why anyone would buy these instead of the Surface, which should be a superior machine considering it is built by the same company that makes the operating system that runs on it. As Microsoft says, using the Surface will be the premiere way to use Windows 8.
ILL YOU BUY THE SURFACE TABLET?
Q
A
Q
A
It depends how much money youve got, and what you want to use your Surface for. The RT version will be much cheaper, possibly around 400, but will be slower than the Intel-powered Pro, which could cost as much as 1,000. As a rough guide, you should regard the Surface RT as a tablet and the Surface Pro as an Ultrabook alternative. If youll be using it for work, with lots of typing, the Pro is the better choice. Some devices, such as the iPad, need to be held to be appreciated. This will be crucial with the Surfaces keyboards. You will have to try them out before buying to decide which one you feel more comfortable using.
WHICH ONE SHOULD I BUY?
Very hard to say. In many ways, a tablet is only as good as the apps that are available, or the operating system it uses, and thats where the iPad has a massive advantage over most Android tablets. The Surfaces keyboards, however, mean it could be easier to use than the iPad and Android tablets like the Galaxy Tab. But it will need some excellent apps, both built in and created by other developers, to make it a genuine rival to the iPad. Microsoft will certainly be hoping that this video of the Surface failing during a presentation wont be a bad omen: bit.ly/ surfacefail295.
WILL IT BE BETTER THAN THE IPAD?
I need to see the price before I decide to buy one. I know my next tablet purchase will not be an iPad because Apple has annoyed me by not allowing iOS6 to work on my iPad 1. Itll be interesting to see Googles tablet. Anthony Ridley I like the Intel Core i5 processor in the Pro version, but Id like to see a comparison of specs against tablets made by other manufacturers. Branden Grant Not interested in one, and couldnt afford it as I already have the iPad. Got no use for one either. Colin Smith Even if Microsoft matches the iPads price of 399 (on the ARM version), are people going to be annoyed they have a Windows tablet that cant run Windows software? And as for the Intel-based tablets, Microsoft proved years ago that no one wanted them. Sounds like a humongous fail. Nick Hayday I love it! I want one! But they need to make it cheaper than the iPad if they want to get their foot in the door, even if it means not making a profit. Paul Chapman I suspect its success or otherwise might depend on how well Windows 8 is received. It was so obvious that Vista was playing catch up by borrowing features from Mac OS X and Microsoft needs to do more with a tablet than just imitate Apple features. Mgmcc I am interested in picking up a tablet in the next 12 months, but at the moment I cant see myself getting anything other than the iPad. Hopefully, by the time I come to choose, the Surface and other devices will make the choice harder. Evilmonkeyzz
Q
A
Q
A
As well as the Windows operating system, Surface RT will come with a version of Microsoft Office specially designed to work on touchscreen
WHAT SOFTWARE DO THEY COME WITH?
Not sure yet, but possibly in time for Christmas. We do know that the Windows RT Surface will be available when Windows 8 is launched, with the Pro model following 90 days later. Most industry experts expect Windows 8 to launch in the autumn.
WHEN WILL THE SURFACE TABLETS BE AVAILABLE?
KEY SPECS
Surface for Windows RT
Weight: 676g Thickness: 9.3mm Processor: NVIDIA Tegra-based ARM chip Display: 10.6in ClearType HD Display, 1,366 x 768 pixel resolution Battery: 31.5Wh Internal storage: 32GB, 64GB Ports: microSD, USB 2, Micro HD Video, 2x2 MIMO Wi-Fi antennae Software: Office 15 Apps Accessories: Touch Cover, Type Cover, VaporMg Case and Stand
Surface for Windows 8 Pro
Weight: 903g Thickness: 13.5mm Processor: Intel Core i5 (Ivy Bridge) Display: 10.6in ClearType Full HD Display, 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution Battery: 42Wh Internal storage: 64GB, 128GB Ports: microSDXC, USB 3, Mini DisplayPort Video, 2x2 MIMO Wi-Fi antennae Accessories: Touch Cover, Type Cover, Pen with Palm Block, VaporMg Case and Stand
28 June 2012
41
WATCH ANYTHING,
ANYTIME, ANYWHERE!
SMARTER WAYS TO WATCH WEB TV
FOR FREE
W With greater choice and better quality than ever, it its no wonder millions of us choose to watch TV online via PCs, phones and various other devices. o Wayne Williams rounds up 31 brilliant new tools W to enhance and expand your viewing
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28 June 2012
BEST WEB TV TOOLS
R COVE RE U T FE A
ecent figures released by the BBC (bbc.in/ iplayer295) reveal that an increasing number of us now access the iPlayer on devices other than our PCs. Smartphones, tablets and games consoles are all becoming more popular with telly addicts, and its easy to understand why. Instead of firing up your home computer when you want to catch up with shows youve missed, you can watch programmes on the go or enjoy them while sprawled on the sofa in your living room. Of course, its not just the BBC
that offers live streaming and video-on-demand services, and you can view content from most other broadcasters including those overseas in lots of different ways. In this feature, we reveal 31 amazing new websites, programs, add-ons and apps you can use to watch whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you are. We also look at the best tools for improving the overall quality of your online viewing experience, wherever and whenever you tune in.
WEBSITES
button to go to the relevant site and start watching. Usefully, you can filter the channel choices by the type of content they offer live TV, TV shows, films, sport, news, music and more.
www.virginmedia.com/player Virgin Media customers who have an XL, L or M+ TV package and broadband can now watch seven days of catch-up programming online, as well hundreds of shows on demand. Virgin Mobile users can also watch up to an hour a day of shows on their smartphones for free. If you use another mobile provider (such as Orange or O2), youll need to buy a player pass to view the service on the move. Paying 60p gets you 15 minutes of access, while 1.75 will let you watch for an hour. Passes expire within 24 hours.
Virgin Media Player
www.bbc.co.uk/sportmobile The BBC has ugraded the mobile version of its Sport website to offer live streaming of its coverage, as well as on-demand viewing and highlights. It is available on phones and tablets running Android 2.2, on iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads with iOS 5, and through the BBC Sport site (www.bbc.co.uk/sport). You can watch broadcasts over 3G and Wi-Fi to ensure you never miss a minute of matches, races and Olympic events (for which there will be 24 live streams).
BBC Sport on Mobile
music, for example Oldies Night and Twang Nation (country-and-western tunes). You can also create and customise your own channels and search for songs to listen to.
voozy.tv Voozy links to all the main video sites and catch-up services available to view in the UK, including BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD, Sky Go and YouTube. There are also some less well known choices, such as the Chrome-only Guinness World Records Record Player (chrome .guinnessworldrecords.com). Just click a
Voozy
bit.ly/lovefilminstant295 Lovefilm (www.lovefilm.com) recently started offering high-definition (HD) content as part of its streaming-only Instant service, at no extra charge to members. The HD titles include the films The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Four Lions, and the TV series Planet Earth and Gavin & Stacey. You can watch them at the full HD resolution of 1080p, but if youre using an Xbox 360 or smart TV to access the service, youll only get 720p resolution. Lovefilm Instant costs 4.99 a month, but you can try it for free for 30 days before deciding if you want to commit. Rival streaming service Netflix (www .netflix.com) has been offering 1080p HD content since it launched in January.
Lovefilm Instant
cull.tv Cull TV is a great site for discovering new music. It pulls a selection of videos from YouTube and plays them fullscreen and at the highest quality one after another, effectively turning your PC into a video jukebox. The homepage offers a choice of featured channels, each devoted to different types of
Cull TV
28 June 2012
43
MINI WORKSHOP
Watch blocked US shows using Spotflux

1 2 3
Hulu (www.hulu.com) offers the best of US television, including shows like Glee, Family Guy and House. To find a show, click TV. 1 Most Popular 2 and Recently Added 3 will let you find full episodes to view. However, if you try to watch something, youll be greeted with a message telling you that the video is blocked outside the US.
www.livestation.com If you want to find out whats happening around the world, tune into Livestation. This site lets you watch live news broadcasts from countries across the globe, including reports from Al Jazeera, France 24 and BBC World Service. Just select one of the available TV or radio channels to start watching or listening for free (you can upgrade to Premium for a higher-quality, ad-free service). Choices can be filtered by a range of categories, including World News, Business, Politics and Special Interest. There are free Livestation apps available for Android, iOS and BlackBerry.
Livestation
through to partner site Watchnowtv .co.uk (www.watchtvnow.co.uk) to view live broadcasts, and even switch to a different European country. However, many of the foreign shows on offer will be region-locked, so you cant watch them from the UK.
Your iplayer
To bypass this, install Spotflux and launch it from the Start menu. Click the Enable button 1 and the program will start routing all your traffic through the Spotflux servers, making it appear as if youre based in the US. Refresh the Hulu programme you wanted to watch, and it should start playing.
2 3
www.youriplayer.co.uk This new website gathers shows that are currently available to watch on catch-up services and organises them by channel: BBC One, BBC Two, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5 and so on, in an A-Z directory. To see a programme youve missed (or want to see again), click its title to view episode details and go to the channels website to start watching it. You can browse programmes by category, click
www.tv-replay.co.uk This site is a handy online guide to catch-up TV that goes further than the iPlayer by recommending shows to watch and giving them smileyface ratings (as voted by viewers), such as not bad, great and no. It also tells you the most-viewed programmes from the last week in categories including Drama/Soaps, Entertainment/Comedy and Documentaries. Select a show to find out more about it or watch it on the original service (for example, ITV Player). You can search for shows by name or browse by channel.
TV Replay
SOFTWARE
Spotflux
1
When youve finished watching a show, click the Disable button 1 to go back to browsing normally. When Spotflux is enabled, you wont be able to use UK-based services like iPlayer. There arent any settings to worry about, but you can manage updates 2 and set up a proxy if you need one to access the internet. 3
launch.spotflux.com Available for both PC and Mac (and coming soon to mobile), this program encrypts your browsing to make it look as if youre located in the United States. This means you can watch video-on-demand services such as Hulu (the US equivalent of iPlayer), which automatically block viewers outside the US. Spotflux is very easy to use. Just hit the Enable button to start
browsing securely, then hit Disable to go back to accessing the web normally. Sites take a fraction longer to load when the service is running, but you shouldnt notice much of a performance dip. See our Mini Workshop on the left to find out how to watch shows on Hulu using Spotflux.
TunnelBear
www.tunnelbear.com Like Spotflux, TunnelBear lets you pretend that youre accessing the
44
28 June 2012
BEST WEB TV TOOLS

avoid freezing and buffering. Speedbit Video Accelerator works automatically: you simply go to a website such as YouTube, start watching a video and the program will accelerate it in the background. The free version speeds up standard and high-quality videos, but youll need to upgrade to the Premium version for $24.95 (16) per year if you want to speed up HD content.
R COVE RE U T FE A
and Five. Select a channel to start streaming it live, or choose a catch-up programme to watch.
internet from the US, so you can watch services like Hulu and region-locked YouTube videos at the click of a button. Free accounts are limited to 500MB of tunnelling a month, but you can upgrade to a paid account if you need a larger data allowance. The Giant option, which costs $4.99 (3.20) per month, offers unlimited viewing, and Grizzly gives you the same for $49.99 (32) a year. An iPhone/iPad app is available for paid users. If youd rather not pay, you can get a bonus 1GB of data per month by promoting TunnelBear on Twitter. See www.tunnelbear.com/twitter-promo.
www.filmon.com/download/hdi This Desktop tool lets you watch and record live streaming TV from the FilmOn website on your PC or Mac. You can choose from a wide selection of British and international channels covering news, sports, movies, lifestyle, kids, and more. Just select a channel and it will start playing. You can switch between standard and high-definition modes, but most HD content requires you to buy a subscription. Prices start from 14.95 a month. See our Mini Workshop below to find out how to record live TV using FilmOn HDi Player.
FilmOn HDi Player for Desktop
TunerFree MCE plug-in
www.videoaccelerator.com Compatible with more than 165 streaming video sites, Speedbit opens extra internet connections to the clip you want to watch. This helps your browser load the video much faster and
Speedbit Video Accelerator
bit.ly/tunerfree295 This plug-in lets you add live streaming and catch-up TV to Windows Media Center. Once installed, you can launch the tool by going to MillieSoft/ TunerFree MCE. The tool offers access to all the main UK channels including BBC One to Four, HD, CBBC and BBC News, ITV 1 to 4, Channel 4, E4, More 4
MINI WORKSHOP Watch and record live TV using FilmOn HDi Player
1 3 4 2 3 1 2
2 1 3
FilmOn (www.filmon.com) offers a wide selection of channels, including all the main UK ones. Click a channel name 1 to start streaming it live. 2 Broadcasts are initially streamed in HD, but after a short period this may stop (depending on the channel). Click SD 3 to continue watching in standard definition.
You can jump from one channel to the next using the back and forward buttons 1 and stop the video playing. 2 Hit the record button 3 to start recording the programme youre currently watching. To finish recording, hit the button again. You can view stored recordings by clicking the film-camera icon. 4
To find out what programmes are coming up on FilmOn, click the TV Guide button. 1 Click a programme name to find out more about it. Tick the Record box next to it 2 to set that show to record automatically. To view your list of scheduled recordings and change the settings, go to View, 3 Preferences.
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BROWSER ADD-ONS
bit.ly/chrometv295 This Chrome add-on gives you instant access to more than 3,000 TV channels around the world, so you should always be able to find something interesting to watch. Once installed, just click the toolbar button and a new window will open. You can view Local TV stations (which are only local if you live in the US!), or browse by country or category. Youll need to install the Windows Media Player plug-in before you can watch certain channels.
TV for Google Chrome
from 120 different countries. The toolbar also offers lots of useful tools, including a world clock, Wikipedia search, browser speed test, file converter and Jamie Oliver recipes. You can choose which features you want to appear on the toolbar.
www.cooliris.com/ channels Cooliris, which is available for Chrome, Firefox and Safari, gives you access to a wealth of TV programmes, music videos, movie trailers and free films, pulled from a variety of sources. The content is organised by category, and displayed on a wall that you can scroll left and right, and zoom in and out of. When you find something to watch, just click it to start playing immediately.
Cooliris Channels
blocked content on YouTube, Hulu or Grooveshark. Clicking the extension button will toggle the feature on or off, but ProxMate will attempt to automatically unblock videos when it encounters them.
ProxMate TV Toolbar
tvtoolbar.org Available for Firefox, Chrome, IE and Safari, this browser toolbar lets you watch more than 2,200 live channels
bit.ly/proxmate295 This sneaky add-on for Firefox and Chrome lets you spoof your location so you appear to be based somewhere else. This means you can watch region-
toolbar.tv-fox.com This Firefox add-on lets you explore more than 2,700 TV channels, sorted by country and category. Just click a button on the toolbar, browse the list and select a channel to watch. If that channel is available (and some often arent), the live video stream will open in a new window so you can carry on browsing while watching. Doubleclicking the picture will switch to full-screen mode.
TV-Fox
MOBILE APPS
tvcatchup.com/android. html Like the website (and despite its name), the TV Catchup app doesnt actually let you catch up with programmes that have already been screened, but instead lets you tune into live broadcasts from more
TV Catchup beta Android app
than 40 channels, including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. The Android app is currently only available in beta, so theres no guarantee it will work with your particular device, but its free and definitely worth trying. You can also access TV Catchup on the move via
its dedicated mobile sites for iPhone (iphone.tvcatchup.com), iPad (ipad .tvcatchup.com) and Android (android .tvcatchup.com).
bit.ly/iplayerandroid295 As with the iOS version of BBC iPlayer (bit.ly/iplayerios295), the recently revamped Android app lets you stream live television and radio via Wi-Fi or 3G, and catch up with the last seven days of
BBC iPlayer on Android
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28 June 2012
BEST WEB TV TOOLS

BBC broadcasts. You can scroll through the Featured and Most Popular shows, and add programmes to your Favourites, so new episodes become available to you as soon as theyre posted online. Premier League and UEFA Champions League. The subscription renews automatically every month until you cancel it.
R COVE RE U T FE A
bit.ly/netflix295 This app lets you sign into your Netflix account and watch any available TV episodes and films on your Android device. New customers can sign up through the app and subscribe to the service for 5.99 per month. Netflix is available on multiple platforms including the iPhone and iPad, games consoles, set-top boxes and smart TVs. Cleverly, you can also start watching a show on one device and continue viewing it on another.
Netflix
bit.ly/4oDiOS295 Channel 4s iOS app lets you watch a wide selection of recently broadcast shows from Channel 4, E4 and More4. You can view recommended programmes, browse the A-Z list or search by category. You have 30 days to watch catch-up shows. Note that youll be prompted to create an account when running the app, but if youd rather not, you can skip this step. Although Channel 4 has yet to launch a 4oD Android app, you can access the service on your phone or tablet via the mobile site (m.channel4.com/4od).
4oD Catch Up
countryrestricted content (such as programmes on Hulu) on the go. The adsupported app is free, but buying a subscription will let you enjoy faster speeds and optimised page viewing. A free iOS version is also available (bit.ly/ hotspotios295).
bit.ly/skysports295 This iOS app lets you watch up to nine sports channels Sky Sports 1 to 4, Sky Sports F1, Sky Sports News, Sky News, ESPN and At The Races wherever you are, and stream live broadcasts via both Wi-Fi and 3G. Although the app itself is free, youll need to pay 9.99 per month to view the channels, for which youll be able to enjoy all F1 races and games from the
Sky Sports TV
bit.ly/itvapp295 ITVs new iOS app lets you watch ITV1 and 2 live on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, as well as catch up with shows from the past 30 days from any of the broadcasters channels. Catch-up TV requires a Wi-Fi connection, but you can view the live streams over 3G and Wi-Fi. To find a programme, browse the recommended list of shows, search for it by name or check whats been on each channel. Theres also an Android version of the app (bit.ly/itvandroid295), but this doesnt yet offer live streaming.
ITV Player
www.sky.com/shop/tv/sky-go Sky subscribers can watch live content on iOS devices and selected Android phones via Wi-Fi or 3G. Only certain channels are available, but these include Sky Sports and Movies, if you have them as part of your Sky package. iPhone and iPad users can watch films on-demand. Sky Go is also available for PC and Xbox 360.
Sky Go
bit.ly/hotspotshield295 AnchorFrees popular Virtual Private Networking tool has at last arrived on Android, which means you can watch
Hotspot Shield for Android
www.crackle.com Crackle lets you watch free TV shows and Hollywood movies online, and its free iOS and Android apps offer the same content on mobile devices. You can view Crackles recommendations or browse all the programmes and films on offer. Although the content is free to watch, it does come with video adverts scattered throughout.
Crackle
28 June 2012
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What you say...

We asked Web User readers how they prefer to watch BBC iPlayer and other catch-up TV. Heres what you told us. I love BBC iPlayer. High-quality output plus high-quality interface equals a lot of happy punters. I watch it mainly through BT Vision, or through my smart TV. I also occasionally watch F1 on my phone. Chris Armstrong I watch catch-up TV in bed on my phone. If Im downstairs, then I use the laptop. Emmy Von-Sweetie Upstairs we access iPlayer via the Xbox 360 app; downstairs we use our Apple TV (and stream it from our iPad). During the day, I watch iPlayer on my PC if there is something I want to watch but the wife doesnt. James McGinnis After lunch, laid on the settee, I usually watch BBC iPlayer on my iPad for an hour. Ray Stanley All I use my Wii for now is to watch catch-up TV on the main telly, or I sometimes use my Xbox! Its a bigger, better screen than my laptop. Tom Pocklington I use the app on my Sony Blu-ray player to watch TV on my 46in screen. I also use the iPad and iPhone when I am in other rooms in the house. I cannot remember the last time I watched TV on my PC. Alan Stevenson If Im in the bedroom, I use my laptop. If Im in the bathroom, I use my phone. Steve Duckworth BBC iPlayer is a joy on all platforms. Richard Morgan
HARDWARE
The Xbox version of iPlayer now offers support for Kinect, so you can navigate the interface using hand gestures and voice commands, as well as with the standard controller. You can view featured shows or explore by category, channel or most popular. The iPlayer is available to Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Live Free members. To add the player, go to the Video section in the App Marketplace.
iPlayer on Xbox 360
BBC iPlayer is also available on both the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. To add the service to the PS3, sign into the PlayStation Network, choose My channels under TV/Video Services and select it there. On the Wii, go to Wii Shop Channel, search for BBC iPlayer and download it. If its not visible, you may need to update your Wii first. Go to Options in the main menu, select Wii Settings and choose Wii System Update.
iPlayer on other consoles
www.boxee.tv This small, cube-shaped set-top box (138 from Amazon) can play TV shows, films and streaming content from all over the internet, as well as files stored on your network. It also offers apps for more than 400 web services, including Facebook and Vimeo. The device supports full HD (1080p) with 5.1 surround sound, and connects to your TV via HDMI and your network using Wireless N.
Boxee
YouView trial
www.youview.com Its been a long time coming, but YouView (formally Project Canvas) is at last being trialled in the UK. The service, which is a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel Five, TalkTalk, BT and Arqiva, combines Freeview digital channels with content from on-demand services like iPlayer. Youll need a set-top box to access YouView, and can register your interest in joining the public trial at trials.youview.com.
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28 June 2012
BEST WEB TV TOOLS

BEST NEW SMART TVS
Smart televisions are becoming more popular as they become cheaper, and all the major manufacturers now offer them. A smart TV is a television you connect to the internet, either via Ethernet or wirelessly, to get access to a range of online functions including a web browser you can control with your remote (or using a wireless
R COVE RE U T FE A
keyboard); a collection of apps for services like YouTube, iPlayer, Skype and Facebook; and app stores where you can browse and add more services. Heres an overview of some of the best new models available. Look out for our in-depth Group Test of smart TVs in the next issue of Web User.
www.panasonic.co.uk This high-end 42in LED model offers built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth support, a LAN port and three USB sockets. It uses a dual-core processor for multi-tasking, so you can run more than one app at once, or chat to a friend on Skype while youre watching TV.
Panasonic TX-L42WT50, 1,635
www.samsung.com/uk This 46in LED TV comes with a built-in camera which you can use to video chat or control the interface and browse the web with hand gestures and voice commands. There are lots of apps to play with and loads more available through Samsungs app store.
Samsung UE46ES7000, 1,699
www.sony.co.uk The huge Sony KDL-55HX853 has a 55in LED screen with four HMDI ports and built-in LAN and Wi-Fi. It offers a good selection of apps, and lets you stream movies and listen to music through the Sony Entertainment Network. It also works well with Sony tablets, so you can share videos with your mobile device.
Sony KDL-55HX853, 1,799
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28 June 2012
49
best free
password managers
Password managers save you the hassle of remembering logins and completing online forms. Robert Irvine reviews six free tools that store passwords more securely than your browser
LASTPASS
FEATURES PERFORMANCE EASE OF USE
https://lastpass.com
GOLD D AWAR
What w we liked: Despit Despite some close com competition from new conten contender Dashlane (see separate s review), LastPa LastPass remains our favourite tool for storing, protecting a and entering online passwords and personal information. Like man many password managers, it offers a paid-for and a free version, but in this case the latter doesnt deprive you of essential features. Indeed, its the huge range of customisable but easy-to-use tools that keeps LastPass leading the passwordmanagement pack. When you install LastPass, you can choose to add its plug-in to all your browsers, import insecure data from other programs and get suggestions for a master password to secure your details. LastPass uses an online vault, into which you can save an unlimited number of passwords and form-filling profiles, including addresses, contact information and credit card numbers. This data can either be entered automatically
on the relevant sites, or you can choose it manually by clicking the toolbar button on your browser. All your data is encrypted and stored in the cloud so you can access it from any PC, and there are options to increase your security, such as using fingerprint authentication. LastPass has a host of extra features, including a password generator and the ability to share logins with friends without revealing your passwords. Upgrade to the paid-for version for $12 per year (7.70) and you can use the service from your smartphone. A 14-day free trial is available for most platforms.
How can be improved? The LastPass interface is rather dated, especially when compared to our slick Silver Award winner, and some useful settings are hidden away. A subtle redesign would keep the service ahead of the pack.
OUR VERDICT
For a secure, flexible way to store your personal information online, LastPass is still the tool to beat. Its packed with great features and means you only ever have to remember your master password.
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PASSWORD MANAGERS
DASHLANE www.dashlane.com
we liked: What w Dashlane cant rival LastPass Das for versatility, but considering it only launched con a few months ago, it already looks very impressive compared to the other services we fast, extremely easy to use reviewed. Its fas and places no limit on the number of passwords you can store. Unlike our other award winners, Dashlane asks you to enter your name, address and bank card details manually when you first launch the service. Once thats done, you wont need to type this information again, because Dashlane will complete it for you. When you register with a website, a secure password is generated automatically, and when you import logins from other programs Dashlane highlights weak and overused passwords and lets you replace them. This intelligent analysis of how you use the web extends to speeding up and
PERFORMANCE EASE OF USE FEATURES
BEST OF THE REST

RoboForm www.roboform.com RoboForm is easy to use and integrates seamlessly with your browser, particularly in Chrome, where its options are tidily tucked into a toolbar button. But it now charges for some features that other password managers offer for free. The latest Desktop version costs $29.95 (19), but the best paid option is RoboForm Everywhere, which costs $9.95 (6.40) a year (reduced from $19.95). This syncs your data between your PC or Mac and your mobile devices, so you can instantly log into sites from anywhere. KeePass keepass.info Unlike our browserbased award winners, KeePass is a standalone program, which makes it less useful for saving and filling in online information. Its also less easy to use, with several baffling options and little explanation of how the program works. However, once you get to grips with KeePass, youll find it a powerful way to safeguard your accounts, with several levels of security including encryption, a custom password generator and protection with a Master Key. A Classic and a more advanced Professional edition are both available as free downloads. Norton Identity Safe https://identitysafe.norton.com Free to download until 1 October, Norton Identity Safe beats our award winners by letting you sync your passwords across different browsers, PCs and mobile devices, with free apps for iOS and Android. However, it lacks features such as a secure password generator and we could do without the tools for sharing content on social networks and detecting phishing sites. Its great that you can easily save unlimited logins and profiles (called identity cards), but importing data from other programs isnt straightforward, and the browser toolbar looks ugly.
SILVER AWARD
recording your online purchases. For security reasons, all data is stored on your PC rather than the web and protected with a master password. How can it be improved? Some tools need to be unlocked by earning points, which beats paying but still takes time. Also, although you can sync your passwords with your iPhone, an Android app has yet to be launched.
OUR VERDICT
Speedy, safe and simple to use, Dashlane is one of the best new tools weve seen this year. With a few more features, it could soon outdo LastPass.
STICKY PASSWORD FREE

www.stickypassword.com
FEATURES PERFORMANCE EASE OF USE
E BRONZD AWAR
What we w liked: The fr free version of Sticky Passwo Password isnt as generous as LastPa LastPass or Dashlane, but it lets you y store more accounts than R RoboForm (15 compared to 10) and h has some useful tools that its rival ser services lack. For example, Sticky Password will lock itself if its left idle for a certain number of minutes, and can be only unlocked with your master password. It can import login details from your browsers and other password managers, and can be used for both web and software accounts, such as your email program. Theres even a portable version you can install on a USB drive, a feature RoboForm charges for. Sticky Password is helpful but not obtrusive, offering to generate and save strong passwords when required, and listing your favourite sites and programs for quick access. You can launch the
manager from your browser or Taskbar, and easily save all your data as an encrypted, password-protected file. How can it be improved? The free version only lets you create one identity, which makes it less handy for form-filling than LastPass. For unlimited accounts and profiles, you need to pay $29.99 (19.40) for the full edition.
OUR VERDICT
Sticky Password Free has a few limitations, but compensates with some great features and enough hand-holding to guide you without annoying you.
Discuss password security tips at forum.webuser.co.uk
28 June 2012
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11
tools from HotUKDeals

Money-saving site HotUKDeals (HUKD) is an essential bookmark for any savvy shopper. Vicky Woollaston reveals 11 of its most useful features that will lead you straight to the best bargains
Browse the latest deals on your phone
the Facebook account hand-picks deals or highlights those that are ending soon. You can also use the HUKD Twitter and Facebook pages to request moneysaving advice, share stories and recommend products and services.
You can search thousands of HotUKDeals (www.hotukdeals.com) offers, codes, freebies and competitions on the go by using the free app for Android (bit.ly/android295), iOS (bit.ly/ apple295) and Windows Phone (bit. ly/windows 295). The deals can be filtered by hottest, newest or most discussed, and include links to the discounts, so you can grab them direct from your mobile. The customisation options let you choose what kinds of offers are shown, such as gaming, computers and entertainment, and you can save your favourite sites and searches.
Save money on groceries

elsewhere. HUKD only uses your email address for sending the newsletter, and guarantees it wont be used for anything else, or sold to other companies. But if you dont want to sign up, you can still view many of the best daily deals by bookmarking the Newsletter page or subscribing to its RSS feed instead.
You can also get regular deal updates by following HotUKDeals on Twitter (twitter.com/hotukdeals) and liking it on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ hotukdeals). Its worth doing both, because the discounts on the two social networks can differ. The Twitter account generally posts deals that are currently trending on HUKD, based on their hotness rating and popularity, whereas
How to never miss a deal
www.hotukdeals.com/newsletter When you sign up to the HotUKDeals Newsletter, you get the best deals delivered to your inbox every day. The email includes the hottest deals as voted for by other HUKD members, as well as offers that arent available
Receive the best daily deals by email
HUKDs mobile apps save you money on all sorts of goods, but its Basket Buddy app has been designed specifically to find the biggest savings on your food shopping. Available for Android (bit.ly/ abasket295) and iOS (bit.ly/ibasket295), Basket Buddy tells you which shops are offering discounts on thousands of products, so you know where to get the best deals. It also provides printable vouchers that can be redeemed in local stores. Its handy built-in map shows where your nearest branches of hundreds of participating shops are, including Tesco, Asda, Aldi, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Co-op, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Costcutter and Budgens.
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HOTUKDEALS
Ask other users for money-saving help
Gamebase price-comparison tool (gamebase.dealspwn.com). It also offers game reviews, trailers and news about gaming events, and suggests ways to get cheap tickets. Dealspwn doesnt just tell you where to find the biggest bargains; it also shows you which games are dropping in price and the percentage youll save if you buy now. Usefully, when you click a game, the prices update in real time and you can see, at a glance, if a site has sold out.
www.hotukdeals.com/all/deal-requests If you want free delivery when buying an item online, are looking for a cheap washing machine or need an Orange Wednesday code for the cinema, visit the Deals Requests area to see if anyone knows of suitable offers. This HotUKDeals discussion board is full of helpful people who have found discounts in magazines and newspapers, or have been given exclusive deals because theyre customers, subscribers or club members of certain companies. Deals Requests is also a great place to ask for product recommendations, and to find local sellers and hidden gems.
features on managing your finances, apps that are designed to save time and money, and cheap and free things to do on rainy days and with leftover food.
Make money from selling your unwanted goods Find the webs best freebies
HotUKDeals has a For Sale page (www.hotukdeals.com/all/for-saletrade), where you can buy unwanted goods from other people, or sell and trade your own. However, its a much better idea to use HUKDs partner site Fo.lk (fo.lk), where youll find all the same offers and plenty of others. At Fo.lk, its also much easier to browse categories, search and create listings, and switch between items for sale, wanted items and freebies. The sites terms and conditions (fo.lk/rulesregulations) ban sellers from listing items for more than the recommended retail price, and all listings and comments are moderated to avoid scams.
www.hotukdeals.com/all/freebies If you loved the freebies in our cover feature in Issue 291 (bit.ly/issue291), you can find many more like them on HUKDs brilliant Freebies page. At the time of writing, free stuff on offer included personalised greeting cards from Winston and Harry (www. winstonandharry.com), concert and cinema tickets, MP3s from Coldplay, various phone apps and even cakes. There are also free trials for software, memberships and other services, with a welcome emphasis on those that dont ask for your card details beforehand. The page is constantly updated and, where possible, tells you when deals are due to end. If an offer has finished, the deal is greyed out and marked as expired.
www.bitterwallet.com Rather than telling you about specific deals, HUKDs Bitterwallet helps you get more for your money by sharing financial secrets and loopholes, and insider rumours and tips, as well as horror stories about companies from their customers. It offers advice about privacy issues, as well as your legal rights as a consumer, and delves behind news headlines to get to the truth about scams and those too-good-to-be-true offers. Its written in a friendly, accessible way without any financial jargon.
Discover loopholes that save you money
Get the best deals on games
www.dealspwn.com HotUKDeals spin-off site Dealspwn helps you find the cheapest prices for games on all console platforms using its
www.playpennies.com Playpennies is another of HotUKDealss sister sites, which is dedicated to helping parents save money. It finds all the latest savings on childrens toys, books, clothes, days out, food, nappies and more and, like the main HUKD site, it has a list of special freebies and competitions, too. We particularly like the tips and advice pages that include
Find deals especially for parents
www.mobot.net Mobot is another of HUKDs helpful partner sites. Its a mobile-phone community, packed with news and reviews of the latest hardware and app releases. You can compare phones and contracts, get recommendations from other users, and read discussions about handsets and networks.
Find the best deals on mobiles
Find more great deals at forum.webuser.co.uk
28 June 2012
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BEST FREE
FLIGHT SIMULATORS
You dont need flying lessons to become the perfect PC pilot. Robert Irvine picks nine free tools that get you into the cockpit and off the ground to navigate the world and beyond
microsoftflight.com Released earlier this year, Microsoft Flight (a 1.45GB download) is a free flight-simulation game that can turn anyone into an amateur pilot. Its much easier to play than most simulators, because you can control the plane with your mouse rather than a joystick and hide the more advanced controls until youre sufficiently trained to use them. The early missions are guided to help you safely get off the ground and back down again, and you can expand the game with different aircraft, extra scenery and challenges. A few of these upgrades are free, but others need to be bought in-game or from the Flight Marketplace (bit.ly/flight295).
Learn to fly a plane from your PC
Microsoft Flights graphics are impressively realistic, from the Hawaiian landscapes to the weather effects, and there are plenty of dials, levers and buttons to explore in the cockpit. Some reviewers have criticised the game for its unimaginative missions, such as taking a passenger to buy a burger, but if youre new to flight sims, this is a great and free way to get airborne.
www.gefs-online.com If the hefty download puts you off Microsoft Flight, the fantastic Google Earth Flight Simulator (GEFS) requires nothing more than a browser plug-in (earth.google.com/plugin). This free online game was recently updated with several interesting features that lift it above your standard flight sim. You can now choose from 13 different aircraft,
Fly different aircraft across the world
including a Sopwith Camel, an airbus, Concorde, a helicopter and our favourite a hot-air balloon. The multi-player mode has also been improved, so you can see and interact with other planes in your airspace. Although GEFS isnt as smooth as Microsoft Flight, the Google Earthbased gameplay means you can fly anywhere in the world, get photorealistic aerial views and use the new
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FLIGHT SIMULATORS
flight-path tool to plan your route. You can choose to start in-flight or take off from a runway, and switch between five cameras. With too many other great features to list here, our advice is to put on your flying goggles, grab a mouse, keyboard or joystick and take to the skies.
OTHER ONLINE SIMULATORS

Drive a train across Japan
www.realrailway. com/en If youd prefer to drive a train than fly a plane, you can take to the rails at this site, which offers seven online train-simulation games based on Japanese railway lines. For beginners, the Enoshima Line has just two stations, but if you fancy something faster, theres the long-distance, high-speed Chitose Line. Controlling your train is, literally, straightforward and if you want better graphics, you can download superior (but Japaneseonly) versions of the simulators.
orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk Orbiter is a free space-flight simulator thats astronomical in both subject and scope. This realistic 3D game lets you feel what its like to be an astronaut, from launching your space shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center to exploring the Solar System. You can take in the
Explore space like an astronaut
including the Wright Brothers Flyer, Boeing 737s and Zeppelin airships. The latest version, 2.6, which was launched in February, specialises in realistic take-off and landing, using details from thousands of real-world airports included in the program. The dimensions and markings of runways are accurate, the lighting intensity changes according to your viewing angle and you can even taxi your plane to and from the appropriate departure and arrival gates. FlightGear takes a while to master (theres a useful manual at mapserver .flightgear.org/getstart) and works more smoothly on high-spec systems, but it soars above most paid-for flight sims.
Deliver milk around the world
International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and various missions along the way. Orbiter is constantly updated and can be enhanced with third-party add-ons, such as sound effects for inside your cockpit (space itself is silent, of course). NASAs new Eyes on the Solar System (solarsystem.nasa.gov/eyes) also gives
you a detailed, close-up view of space, as if you were flying the Voyager 2 spacecraft. It uses data from missions dating back to 1950 and offers tours of the cosmos from your browser.
Perfect your take-off and landing skills
bit.ly/flash295 If you only have a few minutes to spare, rather than a whole afternoon, get your aviation fix from Flash Flight Simulator. This online game offers four missile evasion challenges in which you must help your plane dodge heat-seeking sidewinders by using flares and fancy maneouvres. Use the arrow keys to move and the Spacebar to shoot. You can choose from 20 different aircraft, including military and commercial planes and the Wright Flyer. Theres also a Free Flight mode if you just want to jet off and explore the skies.
Help your plane dodge enemy missiles
bit.ly/milk295 Although Monster Milk Truck doesnt put you directly behind the wheel t lets you of a dairy vehicle, it experience some of the excitement of being a milkman. Use the arrow keys or on-screen controls to guide your van across Google Earth, while withstanding some impatient nagging. If you want to deliver milk somewhere closer to home (the presets include San Francisco, Tokyo and Everest), enter a location and click Teleport.
Preview your next car journey
www.flightgear.org FlightGear is a free, cross-platform alternative to Microsoft Flight, with a massive range of features, accurate scenery and true flexibility in where and how you fly. There are dozens of planes, helicopters and other aircraft to choose from (many are optional downloads),
www.gaiagi.com/ driving-simulator Most driving simulators are an excuse to break the speed limit and crash into things, but this one has a practical purpose. Enter a departure point and a destination, and you can travel the whole route in your browser using Google Earth, Google Maps, Bing Maps and Street View, all at the same time. That may sound like overkill, but it means you can preview journeys from virtually every angle, and see exactly where you need to go. Plus you can make the car accelerate up to 98mph. Vroom!
Recommend simulators at forum.webuser.co.uk
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14 pages of workshops, tips, projects and problem solving
Tune up your PC with a single click

T
here are lots of programs that claim to boost the speed of your PC, but few have as many useful tools as Ashampoo WinOptimizer Free. This new version of the software, released in May, is a cut-down version of Ashampoos paid-for Windows-optimisation suite, but it still provides 20 free tools to help streamline your PC. The most useful is the One-Click Optimizer, which brings together three of the softwares most essential tools to provide you with a handy suite of tune-up tricks you can perform with a
Ashampoo WinOptimizer Free: www.ashampoo.com 15 mins XP/Vista/7

single click. In this workshop, well show you how to get started with the software and how to set up the One-Click Optimizer to get the exact tune-up you want. During installation, the Express install will add the MyAshampoo toolbar to your browser. If you dont want this, choose Custom installation and deselect the MyAshampoo option.
1 3 2 2 1 3
The first time you use WinOptimizer, click the Full Scan button. 1 It will start to analyse whats on your computer and report its findings. 2 You can see it progress through each task by looking at the green bar. 3 A full scan on our computer took only a few minutes.
Use the drop-down arrows 1 beside the section headings to open them and see what the scanner has found. If you want to keep something, untick it. 2 When youre ready, click Start Optimization. 3
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Changes made to the Registry are automatically backed up. To view them, click the Backups button. 1 If youre confident the scan was a success, or you have a lot of old back-ups, highlight one 2 and click Delete backup. 3 If you need to restore the Registry, choose Undo changes. 4
The One-Click Optimizer can be used to regularly clean your computer, but you should configure it before you use it. Click Modules, 1 then Clean up system. 2 The One-Click Optimizer 3 runs each of the three modules listed above it, so click Drive Cleaner 4 to configure it first.
28 June 2012
WORKSHOP 1
EXPERT TIP
ANDY SHAW says
Use the System Benchmark tool (found in the Modules section, under Diagnosis and information) to see how any changes made by the software have improved your PCs performance. If you value your privacy, try the File Wiper and File Encrypter & Decrypter tools, which are in the Privacy & security section. Use the Undeleter if you accidentally delete something and need to get it back.
2 1 1
Click Settings. 1 Drives 2 lets you select which drives to clean. In Items, 3 you can deselect anything you dont want cleaned. Exceptions 4 lists the folders you dont want scanned, and User Filters 5 lets you set up rules to exclude specific file types.
Close the Drive Cleaner window and select Registry Optimizer, then Settings. 1 You can choose the type of Registry problems to look out for and delete. 2 Click Backups 3 to manage the softwares archive of your Registry settings.
2 1
5 2
In Internet Cleaner, click Options. 1 Browser 2 lets you deselect any browsers you dont use IE, Firefox and Opera are supported. Objects 3 lets you specify what to erase and what to keep, and Cookie exceptions 4 lets you keep cookies for sites you trust, 5 but only in IE.
Click the One-Click Optimizer button at the bottom to run any or all of the three tools by ticking or unticking their boxes. 1 Choose Select optimization mode 2 to choose whether you want to decide what is deleted or let the software delete it all automatically. 3 Go back to Modules.
1 7 1 2 3 4 5 6
Click the blue One-Click Optimizer button on the top right of the screen in Step 4. The software will start scanning your PC to look for problems. 1 Depending on your settings, it will either delete items automatically or youll need to press the Delete Items Now button.
10
Click the Tasks button 1 to schedule automatic scans. Click New 2 to create a new task or Edit 3 to change an existing one. You can rename the task 4 and choose to optimise 5 or defrag. 6 The Time tab 7 sets when and how often the task should occur.
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WORKSHOP 2
Give your hard drive a health check

hats the worst thing that can happen to your PC? For most of us, its hard drive failure. Not only will this put your PC out of action, it could also destroy
your data. Acronis Drive Monitor Free is an early-warning system for hard drives that emails you an alert if it detects any problems.
Acronis Drive Monitor Free: www.acronis.co.uk
10 mins
XP/Vista/7
1 3 4
2 3 1 2
On the Summary screen, youll see a run-down of any problems. Hopefully the Disks section 1 will show that your hard drive is healthy. 2 Click Show disks 3 or Disks 4 to get more information.
Youll see information about your drive, 1 with problem areas flagged up. Youll also see a general health bar 2 for an at-a-glance view of your drives health. If you want to see all the information from the drive, choose the S.M.A.R.T. parameters tab. 3
1 2 2 4 5 3
Drive Monitor also tracks events in Windows own events log, and reports these under Critical events. 1 Click Show critical events to view them. You can right-click any entry and select Knowledge base 2 to research them, or one of the Ignore options 3 to skip or remove them.
To configure the software to send email alerts when it spots problems, click the Options button 1 and the Alerts tab. 2 Click the Change settings link 3 and enter your email address 4 and a name. 5
2 1 1 3 5 4
5
60
Youll also need your outgoing email server details, 1 which you can get from your email suppliers help pages. Gmails, for example, are at bit.ly/smtp295. Click Send test message 2 to check that its working. You can also set it to send daily reports. 3
In the Summary screen, the Backup section 1 only monitors Acronis back-up software. If you use something else, click Options, 2 Backup monitoring, 3 and Disable 4 to grey out the warning signs 5 so they are less distracting.
28 June 2012
WORKSHOP 3
Plug Firefox memory leaks

irefox is known for using a lot of PC memory, which can make it slow to launch and sluggish when loading pages. It can also cause problems when youre
browsing the web. In this Workshop, we show you how to manage and plug memory leaks to make Firefox faster and more stable.
Firefox: www.mozilla.org/firefox
10 mins
4 6 5 3 2 2 1
To check Firefoxs memory usage, right-click the Taskbar, 1 choose Start Task Manager, 2 click Resource Monitor 3 on the Performance tab and go to Memory. 4 Look in the Working Set 5 column to see Firefoxs 6 memory usage. In XP, check the Processes tab in Task Manager.
Running older versions of Firefox uses a lot of memory and can make the browser sluggish. Open Firefox, go to Help 1 and choose About Firefox to check if youre up to date. 2 If youre not, click the Update button to download the latest version.
1 1
3
2 1
If the memory use is still too high, run Firefox in Safe Mode by clicking Help and choosing Restart with Add-ons Disabled. 1 Go back to the Resource Monitor and check the memory again. If its lower, the memory leaks might be caused by your add-ons.
Enable 1 your add-ons one by one and check the memory usage each time. This will help pinpoint which add-ons are causing the problem. Make sure your add-ons are up to date and remove 2 or disable 3 any that appear to be using too much memory.
You can check that your plug-ins are all up to date by going to Mozillas Plugin Check page (www.mozilla .org/plugincheck). Click the Update buttons next to any plug-ins that are listed as Outdated 1 and Vulnerable, 2 and restart the browser.
To monitor your memory usage, install the add-on Memory Restart (bit.ly/memory295). When usage reaches a certain level, which you can specify in Options, 1 the add-ons icon on your toolbar will turn red. Click the red icon to quickly restart the browser.
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Our pick of the best advice from our readers. To get help or offer it to others, visit forum.webuser.co.uk
GENERAL PC
There are some useful advanced settings for Windows Explorer that can only be accessed from the Registry. To see them, click Start and type regedit into the Start menu box. Windows XP users will need to type it into the Run box. Now navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\Advanced On the right, youll see some settings. In many of these values, there is a zero (false) or a 1 (true). For example, ShowInfoTip is set to 1, which means true, but if you double-click it and set it to 0, it turns off the pop-up tips you get when you move your mouse over something in Explorer windows. TaskbarSizeMove changes whether youre allowed to move or resize the Taskbar. Taskbar SmallIcons should be set to 0 if you want large Taskbar icons or 1 if you want small ones. To add EnableBalloonTips, select Edit, New, DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it EnableBalloonTips. Double-click this new entry and set it to 1 if you want pop-up balloon messages at the right-side of the Taskbar, or 0 if you dont want to see these pop-up messages at all. Will Channon, via email
Your top tips
Advanced Explorer settings
TOP TIP
GENERAL PC
25 winner
Build an Explorer Favourites list

Explorer has a list of Favorites in a panel on the left. These are commonly used locations on your hard drive, such as your Downloads folder. If you find that you use a folder a lot, just rightclick the word Favorites and select Add current location to Favorites. This adds the new folder to the bottom of the list. Building up your Favorites list saves time and effort navigating the hard
Add any folder or drive to Explorers left panel by right-clicking Favorites
drive. Ive put lots of useful folders there. Sarah Browne, via email
Plus, at less than 400KB, it runs on my netbook much faster than Photoshop. Ukbirdy, via Web User Forums
BROWSERS
Ive had a bit of a play with the smart tabs feature in Chrome and wanted to share what Ive found, to help others get to grips with it. Smart tabs let you set which page, or pages, open automatically each time you launch Chrome. Click the spanner icon and choose Settings. Under On start-up, youll see three radio button options. These let you choose to see the new tab page; to continue browsing where you left off on another computer; or open a specific page when you open a new tab. You need to have Sync enabled to use the second option. Click Set pages to manage your smart tabs. You can use the pages you currently have open, or add a new page by pasting a URL into the box. BedstorfromAP, via Web User Forums
exceeds the limits on the site where you want to post it, you can make it smaller online using Shrink Pictures. Madeline, via Web User Forums
Smart tabs in Chrome
PHOTO EDITING
I have been using a program called Fotografix (bit.ly/fotog295). It doesnt offer much more than Microsoft Paint, but it does have one key feature: the ability to work with layers. Its completely free and is not supported by adverts.
Use Fotografix to work with layers
Shrink pictures online without having to open an image-editing program
SOFTWARE
Free Advanced Uninstaller Pro
You can now get a free copy of Advanced Uninstaller Pro, by Innovative Solutions from: www.advanceduninstaller.com. Joe_London, via Web User Forums
WEBSITES
WEB RADIO
Fotografix is a free photo editor that lets you work with layers
Ive found a useful site called Shrink Pictures (www.shrinkpictures.com), which lets you shrink a picture to post on forums or elsewhere without the need for an image-resizing program. For example, if you use the Windows Snipping Tool and the size of your image
Shrink your pictures online
Find UK radio stations more quickly
Ive found a great site called RadioFeeds www.radiofeeds.co.uk. It lets you access all British and Irish radio stations, including even the low-powered local stations. It plays on all media players, too, and when I tested it out, I didnt have any problems with buffering. BedstorfromAP, via Web User Forums
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28 June 2012
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READERS TIPS
EMAIL
Create personalised emails with Thunderbird
The grab can be saved as a PNG, JPEG or GIF file. George, via Web User Forums
Thunderbird 13 (www.mozilla.org/ thunderbird), the latest version of the email program, has been released, and it has some useful new features. For example, you can now sign up for a new email address directly from within Thunderbird, as well as create a personalised email address. Theres also a new file-sharing tool, called Thunderbird Filelink that lets you send larger files and attachments. Jenna Perry, via email
WINDOWS
Pin your folders
You pay only for the games you want from Humble Indie Bundles
SECURITY
We cant live without security software and it (usually) does a fine job of protecting our PCs from the worst of the web, but it uses both processing power and memory. You may be able to lighten the load a little by disabling parts of the security software you dont need. I use Yahoo Mail and GMail (I have two email accounts), both of which I access through my browser. I dont have any email software installed. Ive therefore disabled the scanning of inbound and outbound email. There is also an instant messenger shield in my security software, but since I dont use instant messaging, Ive disabled this, too. To be honest, I dont know how much of a difference it makes, but it cant do any harm disabling things I never use. Mike Lee, Ormskirk
No email scans
Bundle 5, and because the games are cross platform, I can play them on my Ubuntu 12.04 laptop and my wifes Mac. Be aware, though, that each bundle is only available for a limited time before its removed and another bundle is launched in its place. You can get updates on when new bundles become available, and for how long, at blog .humblebundle.com. Francis Platt, via email
SECURITY
I really enjoyed the malware tools feature in Issue 294 (bit.ly/issue294) and Ive found a new one from Bitdefender (www.bitdefender.co.uk) that specifically removes the Flame malware. Flame, which is also known as Skywiper, can steal data, copy passwords, record voice conversations, create screen captures, and even access bluetooth devices near any infected computer. You can see if your computer is infected and get rid of it by downloading the Bitdefender tool from bit.ly/flame295. Jermaine Shorten, via email
Its easy to forget the new features in your latest version of Windows and carry on using the OS as you always have. For example, how many items have you pinned to the Taskbar? Its a great way to make Windows 7 faster and easier to use. Open an Explorer window and select Computer, your hard drive, and then the Users folder. You can click and drag the Public folder and your own personal folder to the Taskbar. Drop them when it says Pin to Windows Explorer. You can now right-click the Explorer icon on your Taskbar and select either the public folder, or your folder, and go straight there. K Burke, via email
Remove Flame malware
Pinning items to the Taskbar is an easy way to speed up how you use your PC
EMAIL
Save Gmail attachments in Google Drive
GENERAL PC
I often use the Print Screen key to save images to the clipboard, and then edit and crop them. I also save the pictures using Paint or PicPick Screen Capture (www.picpick.org). However, I recently discovered the Snipping Tool, tucked away in the Accessories menu in Windows. When you click it, a box appears, and if you click the New menu, you can choose to capture the whole screen, or just a window. You can also drag the cursor around an area you want to capture.
Snipping Tool
If you dont have an email program installed, you dont need email protection
GAMES
Humble Indie Bundle available on Ubuntu
Ive found a great Chrome add-on that makes saving Gmail attachments to Google Drive simple and fast. Its called Gmail Attachments To Drive (bit.ly/ gmail295). Once installed, open any email that has a file attached and youll see a new button that says Save To Drive. Click it and the file will be automatically uploaded to your Drive account. The extension works with most files, but not videos or compressed files including RAR and ZIP formats. Youll still have to upload these files manually. Alan Marshall, Loughborough
Good news if youre an Ubuntu gamer like me: the Humble Indie Bundles (www .humblebundle.com) of games are now available in the Ubuntu Software Centre. Each bundle has a different selection of games and the best thing about them is that you only pay what you think the bundle is worth. You can also choose how much of any payment you make goes to selected charities. Recent charities include EFF (www.eff.org) and Childs Play (www.childsplaycharity.org). I recently bought the Humble Indie
Gmail Attachments To Drive lets you save files to Google Drive in one click
If you see words that look like
theyve been typed in a typewriter, follow the instructions
The Snipping tool lets you quickly grab an image of part or all of your screen
and type them exactly as they appear, paying close attention to spaces and punctuation.
Send your tips to webuser@ @dennis.co.uk - win 25 for the best tip!
28 June 2012
63
Readershelpdesk
SOFTWARE
Our pick of the best solutions posted on our reader forums. Visit forum.webuser.co.uk its friendly and free!
MUSIC
I had Nero (www.nero.com) on my previous PC, but I cant install it on Windows 7. I want to make a compilation disc of my favourite tracks, or copy a CD so I have one upstairs and one downstairs. There are loads on offer, but Im not sure which is the best. DoctorBeaker, via Web User Forums Try Ashampoo Burning Studio Free (bit.ly/burning295). It can rip and burn CDs, as well as make copies. Be careful during installation to avoid any unwanted toolbars or browser changes. Ezyduzzit, via Web User Forums
Can anyone recommend a free CD burner?
What file-conversion software should I use?
I want to convert a range of audio formats including M4a and FLAC to MP3. Freemake Audio Converter (www.freemake.com) looked good until I gave it a go, but every conversion I tried brought up an error message and said it had to close. Free software would be great, but I dont mind paying for it if I have to. Gareth5506, via Web User Forums Audacity (audacity.sourceforge .net) is unbeatable for just about everything audio related, and it does all the things you want to do. Keep in mind that its also got a load of features that you probably dont need, so theres a bit of a steep learning curve. It wont be as simple as
Audacity is a very versatile program for editing and converting music files
pushing one button that says Convert this file to that format. Another good program is Switch Sound File Converter (bit.ly/ switch295), but make sure you get the free version. Greysts and Gesail, via Web User Forums
Burning Studio Free from Ashampoo should cover all your disc-burning requirements
GENERAL PC
correct this anomaly? Its not affecting the running of my computer, but Id like to get it sorted. JamesWilly13, via Web User Forums
Q A
How do you save an INI file?
I have edited my PHP.INI file, but Windows 7 wont let me save it and displays the message Access denied. Does anyone know how to save an INI file? Xymalf, via Web User Forums INI files are Windows system files, and some are opened when you first load up your operating system. It could be that the file is already being used, and therefore cannot be saved. Try opening Windows in Safe Mode, make your edits, and then save the file. Greysts, via Web User Forums
There are entries on the AVG forum from 2010 (bit.ly/forum295) that suggest this is a bug that was supposed to have received some attention. An AVG TechBuddy on that forum suggests right-clicking the detected file, clicking Properties and checking the Digital signature tab. You could get in touch with AVG Support (bit.ly/support295) to raise your concerns and find out why this has remained an issue since 2009. It would also be good to find out why this is only happening to you now. Dunno, via Web User Forums
Office, or download any software or virus patches, because I get an error message saying: Installer already running. This problem has been intermittent, but I think it started after I deleted the free Office 2007 software. I have tried System Restore and have run an Avast virus check (www.avast.com) with no luck. Safe Mode is possible, but Im not sure what to look for once I get that running. Westender, via Web User Forums
When a problem occurs with a program, the best solution is to uninstall then reinstall it. If you cant uninstall from a normal boot-up, possibly
SECURITY
GENERAL PC
Q
64
Every time I run a full AVG scan on my computer, I get two messages telling me that running programs have a File signed with a Broken Digital Signature. Can anyone tell me how to
How do I get rid of AVG messages?
How do I stop Windows Office Installer running?
I cant use my PC because the Windows Office Installer will not stop running. It keeps trying to find source files that arent there. I have tried to uninstall the software, but its not letting me do that either, so I cant use
To stop Office installation problems, enter Safe Mode and disable Office services before restarting
28 June 2012
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READERS HELPDESK
because it says the program is running or a file associated with it is open in another application, then try doing it in Safe Mode. Tap F8 when you turn on your computer and select Safe Mode with Networking. In this mode, Windows only runs its essential services. Type msconfig into the Start Menu and hit Enter. Under Services, scroll down and untick boxes for anything to do with MS Office. Click Apply, then OK, then restart the computer. Dunno, via Web User Forums Chkdsk to run an expanded version of the disk check with five tests. The last two check the drive for file, folder and free-space errors, and will fix related MFT (Master File Table) errors if there are any. Another option is to close all windows and run the command prompt as an administrator in the same way I mentioned before, but this time type sfc /scannow (note the space after sfc). Hit Enter and type exit when its finished, then restart your computer. Kevinf80, via Web User Forums You can also download DriverUpdate SlimDrivers (www.driverupdate.net). Its an excellent free driver-detection program that will pick up on any other drivers that need updating. Difarn and Dunno, via Web User Forums
BROWSERS
Q A
What has Flash done to my browser?
BROWSERS
DRIVERS
Q A
Why wont IE open?
I have the 64-bit version of Windows 7. I have downloaded both IE8 and IE9, but when I try to launch them, nothing happens. Philmurfin, via Web User Forums
Q A
What is an ATI graphics driver?
Since I updated Adobe Flash, I cant open Internet Explorer. It just freezes. Chrome is working fine. How can I solve this annoying problem? Teddyboy, via Web User Forums It is probably best if you uninstall Flash using the relevant uninstaller for your operating system. You can get it at bit.ly/uninstall295. Then try reinstalling Flash from scratch again. You could also go into the Control Panel and open Flash player. On the Advanced tab, click Delete All. This will clear Flashs cache. Or try resetting IE to its default settings. If you manage to get IE to open, go to Tools, IE Options and Advanced. Or type
I keep getting a message saying an ATI graphics driver isnt installed or is missing, but I have no idea what it relates to. RachelC, via Web User Forums This is the driver for your graphics card, which is probably a Radeon model. Go into your Device Manager from the Control Panel, open Display adapter and right-click the item listed below it. Select Update Driver Software. If this doesnt find the latest driver, then uninstall the present driver by rightclicking it again, clicking Uninstall, and then reinstalling it. Alternatively, go to the AMD site, click the link for the auto-detect tool at bit.ly/ driver295 and follow the prompts. It will probably come up with your chipset drivers in a small information box, next to a Download button. Click to download, then Run and use the Express option. The driver for mine is about 95MB, so this might take a few minutes.
Its not a good idea to run both IE8 and IE9 on the same PC. Microsoft has explained why this is the case at bit.ly/microsoft295. Uninstalling IE9 should automatically revert your browser back to IE8. Madeline, via Web User Forums
Change temporary internet file settings
Delete All clears Flashs cache, which may clear up problems with the software
Stick to one version of Internet Explorer at a time, because different versions can clash
GENERAL PC
into the Start box and click the entry that appears. Dunno, via Web User Forums
Q A
How do I find corrupted files?
EMAIL
Windows 7 cannot download an important security update because of a corrupted file. How do I find this file so I can repair or replace it? Golden, via Web User Forums
Where have my emails gone?

My dad has an NTL World email address, which he accesses on his smartphone and on Outlook on his computer. Any emails he opens on his phone are no longer in his inbox when he goes to access them on his computer. They stay in his inbox if he doesnt open them on his phone, so I dont think the problem is with Outlook. Gareth5506, via Web User Forums When accessing mail with multiple devices, it may be better to use IMAP rather than POP3. With IMAP, messages remain on the server and all computers syncing with the server, so you will have access to all messages, including sent messages, on every device. Depending on how youve got it set up, POP3 may delete the message on the server IMAP has more options when its than POP3 mail been downloaded onto the phone. Also, on phones, messages are usually ignored if theyre more than a few days old, to prevent vast amounts of mail being downloaded. Mgmcc, via Web User Forums
Go to the Start menu, All Programs, Accessories. Right-click the Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator. Type chkdsk /r (note the space after chkdsk) and hit Enter. You will get a message that the drive cannot be locked, but that the command can be scheduled to run at the next restart. Type Y and then hit Enter again. You will get a message that Chkdsk has been scheduled to run on the next boot. Restart your computer. Chkdsk will run during the boot, which will take a while, particularly if your boot partition is large. The /r suffix forces
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28 June 2012
65
Web User answers all your technical questions. Email us for help at webuser@dennis.co.uk
HARDWARE
can try new designs, components and gadgets without changing your live website until youre ready. To use it, simply download it, install it and log in. However, BitNami doesnt fit what you seem to be looking for. From what you say, you want to work on your WordPress sites offline, then click a button and upload the changes to your online sites. Unfortunately, WordPress doesnt have PC software that works like this, because its assumed that youll always have an internet connection and can work on your site online. However, if youve got an iOS or Android device, there are apps available from WordPress (wordpress.org/ extend/mobile) that do this kind of thing. If you need to do it on a PC, there are programs that connect to WordPress, such as Windows Live Writer (www.windowslive.co.uk/ essentials/writer).
Ask the Experts
Optical drive clash
I have a problem with my DVD drives. Both my internal drive and my Samsung external drive show the message Insert disk into drive, but when I do this, nothing happens. Both drives are listed in My Computer. I have a Dell computer using Windows XP. William Stedham, via email This could be a problem thats easily solved. If two drives have the same drive letter, it will confuse Windows. The solution is to change one or both of the drive letters. Click Start, right-click My Computer and select Manage. Click Disk Management. The DVD-Rom drives will be displayed and, when rightclicked, will show an option to Change Drive Letter and Paths. Select the current drive letter in the next window and click Change. Select a letter. Any one will do, provided it is not being used by something else. Repeat this for the other drive and restart Windows. If you have changed the drive
Go to Disk Management and right-click a drive to change the letter associated with it
letters and they still dont work, right-click My Computer and select Manage. Select Device Manager and expand the DVD/CD-Rom drives section. Right-click each drive and uninstall it. Restart Windows and the drives will be reinstalled automatically. If they still dont work, then it is probably a hardware fault. Sometimes you find that a drive stops reading DVDs but will still read CDs, or vice versa. Try a few different discs. If it is the hardware, dont worry. Replacing DVD drives is fairly cheap and not too difficult. Google Shopping (bit.ly/ dvd295) lists internal models for desktop PCs from 13.
BROADBAND
Safest broadband
WordPress offline
In Issue 251, October 2010, you featured an article describing how to install WordPress on a computer. My question is, once it is downloaded and working properly, can I log into different accounts? I have several WordPress sites and it would be fantastic to be able to work on them individually offline. Jae, via email
WEB BUILDING
hosts the web pages. The article in Issue 251 that youre referring to shows how to download and install WordPress on Xampp (bit.ly/ xampp295). An easier alternative is available from BitNami (bitnami.org/ stack/wordpress), which teaches you how to use WordPress by experimenting with its features and configurations. You
I want to buy a laptop and get broadband up and running. Which programs should I run to be as safe as possible while browsing the internet? The laptop I want will have an Intel Core i3 processor with 4GB of memory. Also, which are the most reliable and secure broadband providers? Dane, via email
WordPress isnt designed to be installed on a PC. You install it on a web server, then log into the website with a password. This provides access to the back end, which is the software that runs behind the scenes, letting you add pages and change the way the software looks. Its a bit like PC-based web-building software, except that the whole system runs on the same site that
WordPress is designed to work online. You write your pages directly into the website, so theres no site uploading
Fibre-optic broadband is far superior to ordinary ADSL. However, not all parts of the country are covered, so check with an ISP before signing up. Weve had many recommendations for Zen Internet (www.zen.co.uk), BT Infinity (www.bt.com/infinity), O2 (www.o2.co.uk), BE (www.bethere .co.uk) and Plusnet (www.plus.net). You can compare ISP deals by consulting our guide to the best deals (page 69). You can get individual security programs, such as a firewall and anti-virus, but its better and easier to protect yourself with an all-in-one suite. Bitdefender Internet Security 2012 (www.bitdefender.co.uk) won our last Group Test in issue 283 (bit.ly/issue283). When we tested it,
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28 June 2012
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ASK THE EXPERTS

it cost 13.49 for a one-year, one-PC license. That said, millions of people find free products such as Microsoft Security Essentials (windows.microsoft.com/ mse), AVG Anti-Virus Free (free.avg .com) and Avast Free Antivirus (www .avast.com) perfectly adequate for keeping their PCs safe. The most important thing is to keep Windows and your security software up to date. Malware often attacks through old security flaws that have been fixed, but linger on the computers of users who dont keep their software up to date. mybook295. Get it working properly and then try installing the Acronis software. Dont use both the WD software and Acronis software for backing up. Choose one or the other. down. My PC is also far slower than my laptop at booting up. Ive fiddled with the start-up programs but to no avail. Tony, via email
VIDEO
Videos blanking out
Many people use free anti-virus software to protect their PCs
Too many back-ups?

I recently purchased a WD My Book Live Duo NAS drive. It is connected to my PC (an HP TouchSmart 520) via an Ethernet cable to my Virgin Media Superhub. I have completed a full back-up but since then, when I have tried to shut down, I get the message Operations are in progress. Please wait. The machine will be turned off automatically after the operations are complete. I have left the PC on overnight on a number of occasions, but the message is still there in the morning. The only option is to force it to shut down by switching the machine off. I have also installed Acronis back-up software (www.acronis .co.uk), but this produces multiple errors when it tries to initiate a back-up. I have yet to use this software as I am using the WD software to back up the files. Should I uninstall this software to see whether this resolves the problem? John Butler, via email You should uninstall all the WD software and Acronis, and make sure you can shut down even when nothing is running. Then install the latest version of the WD software and update it if necessary. The installation CD, software and firmware (the software that runs on the device itself) is available at bit.ly/
HARDWARE
Whenever I try to watch a video or DVD using VLC (www.videolan .org) or Microsoft Media Player, the screen goes blank for about three seconds before the correct movie appears. I think this started happening after a recent Microsoft update. I can open VLC and Media Player by doubleclicking their icons, but if I double-click a media file in Explorer, I get the three seconds of blank screen. During this time, I can hear the sound before the screen displays again. The same thing happens if I select a file from within a program. It makes no difference if it displays in a window or full screen. I can still manipulate other windows while the media file is playing, but if I close VLC and Media Player, the screen blanks again before it returns and plays correctly. Apart from this problem, videos play exactly as Id expect them to. It happens with both AVI and MP4 files. JPEG images dont trigger this problem. Ive tried changing the refresh rate, colour depth and screen resolution, and reinstalling the software, but nothing has worked. It may be significant that I have a Microsoft update thats stuck. My PC tries to install it almost every time I shut
This problem is known as back flash. It only affects video playback and not images because the screen is switched into a separate mode for video playback. Back flash can suddenly become a problem when you upgrade your video drivers, and it can sometimes be solved by installing a different video driver. From the extra information youve sent us, we see that you have an Nvida graphics card. Go to the Nvidia website (www.nvidia.co.uk) and download the latest driver for the graphics card from the drivers section. Theres a link on the homepage. The bug may still be present in the latest driver, so this isnt a guaranteed fix. In VLC, go to Tools, Preferences and select the Video section. Try clearing the tick against Accelerated video output. There are also several video output options to try, such as OpenGL, DirectX, Direct3D and so on. One of these may cure the problem. The stuck Microsoft Update is probably unrelated to the video playback problem. Go to the Microsoft support website at bit.ly/reset295 or bit.ly/repeat295 and you will be prompted to run a Windows Update repair tool. There is also a Fix it button that will reset Windows and Microsoft Update components.
GENERAL PC
Service Pack 1 too slow to install
Q A
I have tried using Windows Update to download and install Service Pack 1 for Windows 7, but it always fails because it takes too long. Do you have any suggestions? Michael Holmes, via email
Service packs are smaller in Windows Update, but downloads can be saved to a disk
Instead of using Windows Update, go to the Service Pack Centre (bit.ly/servpack295) and click the link to download Windows 7 SP1. Do not choose the option to run it, just save it to disk. Theres no time limit on downloads. If your internet connection is slow, you can leave it running overnight. Download windows6.1KB976932-X86.exe if you have 32-bit Windows 7 or windows6.1-KB976932-
X64.exe if you have the 64-bit version. Go to Control Panel, System to see which version of Windows you have. Its under System type. If a download fails, click the download link again because it may continue where it left off. If you still cant get it, download it on another PC or get a friend to do it. Save it to a CD-R or USB memory drive, then run it on your PC.
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28 June 2012
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EXPERT TIPS
Web Users top tips

Our team of experts offer tips and advice on Google Chromes new Settings page
TOP TIPS FOR GOOGLE CHROME SETTINGS
Search for settings

ince Google is the king of searches, its no surprise to find a search box on its Settings page. This can be really useful when you want to change a setting, but arent sure where to find the relevant button or link. Type bookmarks into the search box, for example, and youll see settings to show or hide the bookmarks bar and to import
sync settings from the new Settings page, by clicking the Advanced sync settings button. Choose whether you want Chrome to sync everything, or select the things youd like it to sync from the checklist.
bookmarks. Type tab and youll see settings related to browser tabs and what they do.
To access the Settings page, click the spanner in the top-right corner and choose Settings. You can also enter chrome://chrome in the address bar to check you have the latest version of the browser, and chrome://chrome/ settings for the Settings page.
Special URLs
When you go to Chromes Settings page, youll see that only the most commonly used and basic settings are displayed. Click the link at the bottom of the page to show the advanced settings.
Show advanced settings
to click. If it guesses right, the page will display the instant you click the link. Go to Settings, click Show advanced settings, find the Privacy section and tick the box by Predict network actions to improve page load performance. Prefetching pages also occurs when typing URLs. Chrome knows which ones you enter most frequently and downloads the page as you type, so its there as soon as youve finished.
The Downloads folder can quickly become cluttered. To keep it organised, open an Explorer window and go to the Downloads folder. Create folders called Programs, Photos, Videos, Music and Misc. In Chrome, go to Settings and click Show advanced settings. Scroll down to Downloads and tick the box Ask where to save each file before downloading. Now, when you download a file, a Save As window appears that lets you choose the folder you want to save the download in.
Organise your downloads
When you visit a website, Chrome can pre-empt your actions by fetching the pages from links it thinks youre likely
Boost browsing speed
The latest version of Chrome has introduced tab synchronisation. This means you can see what tabs are open in Chrome on other computers youre signed into, or the tabs that were left open the last time you shut Chrome down. Click the new tab button (to the right of your open tabs) and select the Other Devices link. You can force Chrome to start with your last sessions tabs open, even if you are on another computer. From Settings, in the On start-up section, select Continue where I left off. You can also configure your other
Tab sync update
If you use Chrome for both work and personal use, you might want to keep the browsing histories, bookmarks and other information separate. You can do this by adding different users, in the same way that Windows lets you set up separate user accounts. We looked at this briefly in our Workshop on protecting a shared PC in Issue 293, but heres some more detail. Go to Chromes Settings page and click Add new user. A browser window appears with a face icon in the top-left corner of the window. Click the icon and it will have a dummy name (because the user is unknown). There should be an option to sign into a Google account on the page. All the settings, bookmarks and other information associated with that account are loaded. You are now logged on as that user. You dont have to log in if you dont want to sync with other Chrome browsers running on other PCs, though. Just browse the web as an anonymous user. To switch users, click the icon in the corner of the browser. If you click the icon to show the users, then let the mouse hover over your user entry, an edit link appears after a second or two. Click it to display a gallery of icons. You can choose a new image and user name. Users can be deleted in the Settings page by selecting them and clicking the Delete button.
Add a user
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28 June 2012
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www.webuser.co.uk/june13 0800 083 2357 www.webuser.co.uk/june14 0800 083 2357 www.webuser.co.uk/june15 0800 083 2357
Virgin up to 60MB Broadband + Weekend calls Virgin Starter Bundle (up to 30MB Broadband + 75 TV channels + Talk Weekends)
18.50 (9.25 for six months) 20 (10 for six months)
1 8 mths
60Mbps
Unlimited**
166.50
18 mths
30Mbps
Unlimited**
180.00
BT More Broadband and Evening/Weekend Calls with BT Infinity broadband + 50 Sainsburys Voucher Virgin up to 30MB Broadband
18 (9 for three months) 22.50 (11.25 for three months) 26 (20 for three months)
18 mths
38Mbps
40 GB per month
189.00
12 mths
30Mbps
Unlimited**
286.20***
www.webuser.co.uk/june17 0800 083 2357 www.webuser.co.uk/june18 0800 083 2357
Unlimited Broadband and Evening/Weekend Calls with BT Infinity 2 broadband + 50 Sainsburys Voucher BT TV Essential + Unlimited Broadband + Evening & Weekend Calls with BT Infinity broadband + 50 Sainsburys Voucher BT TV Unlimited + Unlimited Broadband + Evening & Weekend Calls with BT Infinity broadband + 50 Sainsburys Voucher
18 mths
76Mbps
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294.00
30 (24 for three months)
18 mths
66Mbps
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382.00
10
38.50 (32.50 for three months)
18 mths
76Mbps
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484.00
Terms&conditionsapplyseeISPsitesfordetails *First-yearcostdoesnotincludelinerental.Costiscalculatedatmonthlypricex12withallintroductoryofferssubtracted.Additionalchargesincurredoutsideoffreeinclusivecallsnotincludedinfirst-yearcost. **Fair-usage policy applies ***Virgin Media set-up fee of 49.95 included in cost. BT set-up fee of 40 included in cost. BT offer of 50 Sainsburys voucher ends 5 July 2012. Data supplied by www.broadbandgenie.co.uk. Correct as of 19June 2012.
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28 June 2012
69
Weekend project
... How to
Get to grips with some serious PC DIY to boost your computers performance
Best way to organise your photos and videos
os and videos can be a chore. Wayne Williams Managing your photos or keeping them organised has some top tips for
urned igital photography has turned us all into a nation of obsessive snappers, recording every passing moment for posterity. And when were not taking photos of our holidays and trips out, were recording it all in HD video. The downside of being able to record everything so freely is that you ted end up with thousands of unsorted photos, and hours of unedited tle footage. But if you spend just a little time getting organised, managing all ea of this digital content neednt be t all nightmare. Whats more, if you get the tools and organisation lined up ill be before you go on holiday, there will less to do when you get back with your memory card packed with images.
You can also use Windows to tag your photos, which Before you download software, makes them easier its worth thinking about what to search through Windows is good at. Individually later. Right-click a renaming hundreds of photos photo and go to can take an age, but Windows Properties. Click lets you rename lots at a time. the Details tab and Select all your images and press hover your mouse F2. Type a name and hit Enter. to the right of the All the selected photos will be Tags entry. A box given the name you specified, will open for you to followed by a sequential number in brackets photo (1). Add tags to photos in Windows type some keywords into. Try jpg, photo (2).jpg and so on. via the Properties box
Manage files with Windows
to include the location, the occasion, or the names of any people in the picture. If you dont want to do this manually, you can use a free tool such as Kestrel GX (www.kestrelfly.com). See our Workshop, right, to get started with it.
Get the right software
For photos, youll need at least one good multi-purpose image-editing program thats capable of adjusting brightness and contrast, removing red-eye and other unwanted elements. A tool like Paint.NET (www.getpaint.net) or GIMP (www.gimp .org see our Essential Masterclass on
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WEEKEND PROJECT
page 6) is ideal. These programs can also resize your photos one at a time for sharing online or sending via emails. Another program we recommend is Picasa (picasa.google.co.uk). It contains plenty of everyday editing tools and will also manage your photo collection, let you geotag shots to the location they were taken, and create projects such as posters, collages and gift CDs. When installing Picasa, its worth opting to use Picasa Photo Viewer as your default tool for browsing images. Double-clicking a photo displays the image immediately. The background is faded out behind it and there are handy keyboard shortcuts, including the left and right cursor keys to scroll through photos and the Delete key for instantly dumping any you dont like. If you have Picasa installed, but dont have the viewer set up, Open the Tools menu and choose Configure Photo Viewer. To resize a batch of photos in one go (to make them more email- or Facebookfriendly), use Image Tuner (www.glory logic.com) or ImBatch (www.highmotion software.com). The Workshop on page 72 shows you how to batch-resize photos.
GIMPs new interface makes it very easy to edit photos
Video files take even more time to organise and edit than photos. To stop them clogging up your PC, keep unedited videos backed up to an external drive, DVD or Blu-ray. When it comes to editing videos, the right program can provide spectacular results. Good free tools include Windows Live Movie Maker (bit.ly/wlmm295) and VideoLAN Movie Creator (www.videolan .org/vlmc).
Organising videos
The first thing most people do when they get the video off the camera and onto the PC is to sit down and watch it. Dont waste this time by simply enjoying the show. You should start trimming the unwanted sections from your videos as you go. Most video-editing programs have a clip-splitting tool with its own keyboard shortcut. As you watch your footage, keep your finger poised over the shortcut in Windows Live Movie Maker, its the M key. This doesnt remove
Picasas Photo Viewer makes organising your photos much quicker
MINI WORKSHOP Tag your photos with Kestrel GX

1 3 3 5 2 4 2 1 4 2 3 1
Use the panel on the left 1 to navigate through your image folders. Click a folder to display its contents in a strip at the bottom. 2 Selecting a picture will open it. 3 The icons 4 let you rename, rotate and edit a photo. You can also create a slideshow or view the photo in different ways.
To add photos to the programs database, select one or more images, right-click and choose Catalog Files. Click the Keywords tab 1 and type some tags into the box. 2 You can also add the date, 3 give the picture a rating 4 and add it to a category 5 by choosing one or creating your own.
The Metadata tab 1 lets you view a photos properties. You can add and change these through the Edit menu. 2 To find particular photos in your collection, click the Search tab. 3 The simple search option looks for catalogued info, while the advanced search includes camera data.
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28 June 2012
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WEEKEND PROJECT
anything, but makes a break in the clip. When you edit your video, it will be very obvious which sections are for keeping and which can be binned. If youd rather not download an editing program, try the online FileLab Video Editor (www.filelab.com), though you may still need to install a plug-in.
Back up photos and videos
Once youve got everything organised and edited, you should back it up. An external hard disk is ideal for photos and videos, and you can move it between computers easily. A 500GB USB device costs between 50 and 70 on Amazon. Use a free program such as SyncToy (bit.ly/ sync295) to automatically copy new
You can automatically sync new photos from your camera to your computer with SyncToy
Use Windows Live Movie Maker to edit your video as you watch it
photos from your PC to the drive. To set up SyncToy, install and run the software, then click Create New Folder Pair. Under Left Folder, find the location where you keep your files, whether its a digital camera youve connected to the computer to transfer photos over, or your Pictures or Video folder if youre backing up. Under Right Folder, browse to the folder you want to transfer those files to. The software can do three types of syncing. The Synchronize option keeps both left and right sides identical, so if you add, change or delete a file on either side, the same thing will happen on the other. Echo creates a mirror image of the left side on the right side, so a file deleted on the left would also be deleted on the right. However, if you delete a file on the right, itll be copied back again the next time you sync. The last option is Contribute, which copies new and edited files from left to right, but doesnt delete anything.
MINI WORKSHOP Resize photos with ImBatch

5 3 1 2 2 1 3 2 3 4 4 1
Select all the photos you want to resize and drag them to the program window. Theyll appear in a list on the left. 1 You can add more photos by clicking the green plus symbol. 2 Clicking the Yellow Eye 3 lets you preview a selected image. 4
Click the Add Task button 1 and choose the actions to apply to your images. 2 Options include Save As, Resize, Rotate, Flip, Round Corners and Convert to Grey. Clicking the white arrow to the right of the Add Task button 3 lets you select the options from there, and you can also use it to add and remove tags.
Select Resize from the list and click the chevron 1 to expand the box. Double-click the width or height options 2 to enter the new details. Keep one as proportional to avoid squashing or stretching an image. You can change the DPI 3 (dots per inch) and select a resizing method. 4 Click the green Run button 5 to batch-resize your photos.
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28 June 2012
How To... Create the ultimate free security suite
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CHROMES FREE PHOTO EDITING AUTO-REMEMBER

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