Tech Advisorの June 2017 の目次

For its part, ARM is thrilled to have Microsoft as a partner in servers. It’s a big break the company needs to expand into the server and infrastructure market, which is highly profitable Intel’s TV marketing campaign says the company is driving 98 percent of the cloud. That statistic will come under attack with some chip and OS announcements recently. The most significant announcement: Windows Server OS now running on ARM chips. The operating system was exclusive to x86 chips, but now customers can consider ARM chips to run Windows Server. Microsoft did not reveal an official date for an ARM version of Windows Server, though the software company is using such systems internally. The announcement was made on the opening day of Open Compute Project’s US Summit in Santa…

WikiLeaks is back at it again, this time with more than 8,700 leaked documents apparently from inside the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence. According to those documents, the CIA had knowledge of zero-day exploits it could use to hack iPhones. But Apple said many of those bugs have already been patched with the latest version of iOS. The WikiLeaks documents didn’t include details of the bugs or whether the CIA has actually used them, so it’s unclear if or how Apple knows the exploits have been patched. But the company released a statement to multiple media outlets following the WikiLeaks dump: “Apple is deeply committed to safeguarding our customers’ privacy and security. The technology built into today’s iPhone represents the best data security available to consumers, and we’re constantly working…

Samsung has acknowledged that it did not engage device makers enough about its processor strategy, and that it’s had a only a few third-party Exynos successes In a room cordoned off from the Mobile World Congress audience, Samsung showed off untethered headsets that operate independently of smartphones. These prototype devices were mainly meant to show off the processing power of its new Exynos chips. The firm already offers tethered Gear VR models, but now wants outside companies to use its latest Exynos 9 processor in untethered devices and smartphones of their own. Exynos chips have been more of an internal project for Samsung, and been used in the company’s Galaxy phones. Just a handful of third-party phone makers, like Meizu, have used the chips in their handsets. But the Korean…

Determining the value of some of that old gear taking up space in your closet or garage might become a lot easier when you get a Google Home. In a demonstration at Google Cloud Next, eBay chief product officer RJ Pittman showed how the online auctioneer might tie into Google’s digital assistant. He started in by asking the bot if eBay could find the value of his Canon digital camera. “Hi, I’m eBay. I’m the world’s price guide. You can ask me what something is worth,” the bot introduced itself. The chatbot asked a couple of follow-up questions, including the model of the camera (it was an EOS 5D), if it was new, and its overall condition. The eBay bot then landed on a value of £1,750. This ‘digital concierge’…

£189 inc VAT Buy from tinyurl.com/kd9aeo0 Specifications 1.6in (320x320) Transflective LCD touchscreen display; Android Wear OS; 4GB internal storage (approx 2.6GB available); 512MB RAM; quad-core ARM V7 1.2GHz processor; Bluetooth 4.0 LE; microphone; gyro, accelerometer, compass, ambient light sensor; GPS receiver; NFC; 420mAh battery; Micro-USB charging; IP68 dust and water resistant; core unit 45g Android Wear is Google’s operating system for wearables, and most, including the SmartWatch 3, have adopted it rather than use their own system. Note that Sony has confirmed Android Wear 2.0 will not roll out to its watch, given that it supports updates for 18 months after a product has launched. It says this is because it thinks the current operating system is better suited to the device, though we can’t help wondering whether this means…

£219 inc VAT Buy from tinyurl.com/mgro3or Specifications Wi-Fi bridge; starter kit includes base station and wireless satellite; base station connectivity: 1x Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac (5GHz, 4x4 MIMO); satellite connectivity: 1x Gigabit Ethernet, 4x 10/100 Gigabit, 802.11ac (5GHz, 4x4 MIMO), 802.11n (2.4GHz); 150x140x30mm After years of trying to sell us all on super-fast routers that were actually faster than most of us would ever need manufacturers have now realised that reliability is the real priority for homes where multiple PCs, smartphones and other devices are all competing for a slice of your precious bandwidth. Netgear got the ‘mesh network’ ball rolling with its eye-catching Orbi system, but Devolo’s new Gigagate starter kit sticks with the more traditional bridge network approach. At first glance, the Gigagate seems like a direct competitor to…

£166 inc VAT Buy from tinyurl.com/kf4gf72 Specifications 1/3in 2Mp sensor; 16ft night vision with infrared LEDs; built-in microphone; 1.7 mm focal length; F2.5 aperture: F2.5; 802.11n Wi-Fi WPS button; Micro-USB power connector; microSD/SDHC/SDXC card slot; adjustable image size, quality, frame rate and bit rate; adjustable brightness, saturation, contrast, sharpness and exposure time; configurable motion and sound detection; time stamp and text overlays; Wide Dynamic Range (WDR); configurable privacy mask zones: 1920x1080 at up to 15fps, 1280x720 at up to 30fps, 800x448 at up to 30fps D-Link has been making IP security cameras for years, and the current range is larger than most manufacturers’. The DCS-2530L is the latest and has an ulta-wide-angle lens that gives you a full 180-degree view, so there’s no need for a motorised pan and tilt…

£48 inc VAT Buy from tinyurl.com/Lnyhsf6 Requirements Nintendo Switch It’s been six years and two consoles since the last major home console Zelda game, Skyward Sword, and fans have understandably been getting a little antsy about getting their hands on Breath of the Wild. Originally slated as a Wii U exclusive, it’s been delayed enough to become a launch title for the Nintendo Switch (though there’s still a Wii U version too, for non-early adopters). With the rest of the launch lineup looking a bit sparse, it’s probably fair to say that most of Nintendo’s early Switch hopes are hanging on Zelda: so can it bear the weight? While Skyward Sword was mostly well received, it also felt a bit tired. It was the latest in a long line of…

Early tests show that Ryzen responds strongly to memory speeds, especially in gaming tasks, where Ryzen’s performance can sometimes be slower than that of Intel chips The most disruptive computer processors in a decade are finally here, and AMD’s Ryzen CPUs are multithreading monsters. The initial salvo of chips: the Ryzen 7 1800X (£495 from tinyurl.com/kohggku), Ryzen 7 1700X (£353 from tinyurl.com/ n8opuxy), and Ryzen 7 1700 (£318 from tinyurl.com/mxkzdLh) – absolutely chew through productivity and content creation tasks. AMD’s Ryzen 7 processors bring the power of 8-core, 16-thread chips to more mainstream price points. Intel’s cheapest 8-core consumer chip costs a whopping £900, and Ryzen matches it blow-for-blow in multithreaded applications. As well as Ryzen performs out of the box, however, enthusiasts can turn knobs and tweak settings to…

Remote Assistance is for when you and another person are both physically at your computers and one person wants to connect to the other’s (perhaps to perform technical support). Google provides a free and powerful tool, Chrome Remote Desktop, that lets you connect to and control your Windows 10 PC over the internet. (It also works with Windows 7 and 8.) The computer has to be running Chrome, of course, and you also need a Gmail account to sign in to Chrome in order to use this feature. Why would you want to do this? Let’s say you have a computer at home or in the office that you leave powered on and connected to the internet continuously. Maybe there’s a document stored on it that you need to get,…

Microsoft has come a long way since 2001, when then CEO, Steve Ballmer infamously called Linux ‘a cancer’. The more pragmatic Microsoft of this era now accepts the commercial reality that more people now run derivatives of Linux (Android, Ubuntu, and so on) every day than use Windows. Windows 10 is more friendly to Linux users than ever and here we explain how to install and use the Bash Shell, and some commands those new to Bash will want to try. Not long ago Microsoft toyed with the idea of building its own Linux distro. That notion morphed into Project Astoria, a technology designed to enable Android apps to run on Windows. Astoria was ultimately scrapped because it would have eliminated any reason for Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps to…

If you don’t have a Pixel, there’s now one less reason to look at it with envy. The Google Assistant is coming to many smartphones. Google has released it from the confines of the Pixel and is rolling it out to any device that runs Marshmallow (6.0) or Nougat (7.0). Yes, you could always get the Google Assistant in Allo, but it was limited in what was possible, and nobody wants to run a specific chat app for it. Now it’s ready to answer questions, find your photos, and connect more deeply to your Google data. When it comes to your phone, prepare for a major enhancement in how you use Android. The Google Assistant is smarter and more capable than the standard Google app. Here’s what you ought to…

AMD executives said Thursday that the company is working with developers to ensure the “vital optimisations” required to boost the disappointing performance of its Ryzen chip in 1080p gaming applications. In our review (page 54), AMD’s Ryzen competed well when paired with a high-end GPU, in graphics-bound games that could take advantage of Ryzen’s multicore capabilities. At the more common 1080p resolutions, though, Ryzen struggled. That will change, AMD chief executive Lisa Su promised fans in a series of posts on Reddit. “We hear people on wanting to see improved 1080p performance and we fully expect that Ryzen performance in 1080p will only get better as developers get more time with ‘Zen,’” Su wrote. “We have over 300+ developers now working with ‘Zen’ and several of the developers for Ashes…

The Furian architecture will bring more graphics cores, shorter pathways, and the ability to scale performance for longer period of times. The GPUs will also be smaller New PowerVR graphics architecture from Imagination Technologies will give a serious graphics boost to Apple’s future iPhones, including 4K graphics. Imagination is announcing Furian, the first major graphics architecture upgrade since Rogue, which was announced in 2010. Apple’s iPhone 7 currently has graphics based on the Rogue architecture. The Furian architecture also sets up future iPhones for graphics-intensive applications like virtual reality. It will be used in new PowerVR GPUs like the Series8XT, according to Imagination. The architecture has already been licensed to device makers and should be available in mobile devices by the end of 2018. Apple modifies PowerVR graphics architectures for…

The ultimate vision is that they will be able to connect to superfast servers in the cloud to recognise images, draw up maps and make better driving decisions By 2020, an average internet user will use 1.5GB of traffic a day, and daily video traffic will reach 1PB, Intel predicts. A huge amount of data will be generated by autonomous vehicles, mobile devices and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Every day, more information is being collected and sent to faster servers in mammoth data centres, which analyse and make sense of it. That analysis has helped improved image and speech recognition and is making autonomous cars a reality. Emerging superfast data networks such as 5G will dispatch even more gathered information, which could overload data centres. Servers are already being…

Another month, another antitrust action against Google. The Open Internet Project has filed a new complaint with the European Union’s top competition authority, charging the search giant with abusing its dominant position in the market for smartphone software. It was in 2014 that the OIP filed its first complaint against Google, contributing to a European Commission investigation into the company’s search services. Since then, the OIP has gained 20 new members from ICOMP, the Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace. OIP is now led by the chairmen of French search engine Qwant and Hot-Maps.com. Its other members include publishing companies Axel Springer, Hubert Burda Media, TV network ProSiebenSat.1, mapping companies Evermaps and Mappy, stock photo libraries Getty Images and CEPIC, and the Premier League. OIP’s latest complaint concerns Google’s Android…

Since announcing its plan to wipe devices associated with iCloud accounts, the group claimed that other hackers have stepped forward and shared additional account credentials A group of hackers has threatened to wipe data from millions of Apple devices if the company doesn’t pay them $150,000. The group, which calls itself Turkish Crime Family, claims to have login credentials for more than 627 million icloud.com, me.com and mac.com email addresses. These are email domains that Apple has allowed for users creating iCloud accounts over the years. Even though the Turkish Crime Family hasn’t been in the media spotlight before, its members claim that they’ve been involved in selling stolen online databases in private circles for the past few years. The group said via email that it has had a database…

One of the big problems in gaming is incompatibility. A game written for Windows and DirectX won’t, for example, work on Macs or Android devices. Vulkan games work on Android, but not on Apple devices, which has its own Metal API. That’s one problem that standards-setting organisation Khronos is looking to solve with the newly formed 3D Portability Exploratory Group. The group’s goal is to develop an interface so that 3D games and content on the web perform better by hooking up seamlessly with Vulkan, DirectX and Metal low-level APIs. The 3D API exploratory group has just been formed and still exploring the idea, and any solution is still a long time away. The benefits, however, would be massive: web gaming would work better across multiple platforms and devices, and…

£299 inc VAT Buy from tinyurl.com/Lwhqmaf Specifications Mesh networking kit; 3x discs; each disc: 1x auto sensing Gigabit Ethernet port; antennas: 2.4GHz band, 4 transmit/receive; 5GHz band, 4 transmit/ receive; 765x765x77mm So-called mesh networks are the latest fashion in home networking. Instead of relying on one router to provide a strong, fast Wi-Fi signal throughout your home, mesh networks use multiple access points and a few nifty tricks besides. BT’s Whole Home Wi-Fi is the latest mesh networking kit. Price You can buy the Whole Home Wi-Fi for £299. That’s quite a lot, but for this you get three ‘discs’, which you can place around your home to get the best coverage. Other similar kits we’ve seen contain only two modules, and you have to pay for extra units if…

£252 inc VAT Buy from tinyurl.com/Le5kumv Specifications 220mm drone; GPS with return-to-home; 7.4V 2700mAh 10C battery; flight time, 18- to 20 minutes; charging time, 3-to 4 hours; 2.4GHz remote control with 3.7in colour screen; 300- to 800m control distance; 410g We’ve seen a couple of Hubsan drones before, and the X4 FPV, reviewed, is ideal as a starter drone. The H501S X4 is larger and much more advanced, and also a lot easier to fly. Price You can buy the Hubsan H501S X4 from GearBest for £252. Expect to pay import duty and handling fees if you’re ordering from GearBest’s China site and having it delivered to the UK. This is likely to make the total price around £300. Taken at face value, this is a good price for a…

Admit it. You love underdog tales. Liverpool coming back from a 3-0 deficit at half time against Milan to win on penalties is a prime example in the 2005 Champions League Final. Wimbledon defeating firm favourites Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final, or England beating Australia to win the 2005 Ashes. Well, you can now add AMD’s highly anticipated Ryzen CPU to that list of epic comebacks in history. Yes, AMD’s Ryzen almost – almost – lives up to the hype. What’s more, it delivers the goods at an unbeatable price: £495 for the highest-end Ryzen 7 1800X. That’s half the cost of its closest Intel competitor. But before AMD fans run off to rub it into Intel fans’ faces, there’s a very important thing you need to know…

The long-awaited Ryzen CPUs are finally here and AMD’s new hardware arrived with helpful software in tow. Following in the footsteps of the WattMan overclocking tool for Radeon graphics cards, the Ryzen Master overclocking tool is aimed at giving you complete control over your new Ryzen chip, allowing you to push your processor to the bleeding edge of its potential performance. Want to crank voltage higher, fiddle with clock speeds, monitor temperatures, or even completely disable some of your chip’s cores? AMD’s overclocking software enables all that and more. Ryzen Master directly replaces AMD’s OverDrive app. That said, it only works with AMD’s new AM4 motherboards and Windows 10, so if you have an older AMD processor and motherboard you’ll need to use OverDrive. Preparing to master Ryzen First things…

Putting Android apps on a Chromebook could be the best of both worlds, and Google is working hard to ensure that by taking steps to clean up its app store Google wants running Android apps on a Chromebook to feel natural, and to do that, it needs to convert someone like this writer, who has consciously avoided Android’s legendary malware problems. The better option has been the serenity of Chrome OS, with its regular updates, innate security, and easy recovery tools. That’s why we tote a Chromebook everywhere. Android apps are coming to Chromebooks this year though, and the truth is, they need each other. They have had mainstream and vertical success (especially in schools), but with few native apps they’re stuck in browser-land. Meanwhile, Google’s mobile operating system is…

Modern Windows laptops, tablets and PCs fitted with solid-state drives can have limited storage, so it’s more important than ever to keep a clean house and remove unwanted or unused programs. Not only will this free up precious storage space but it can make your device run faster because those programs often start up with Windows. The uninstaller provided with Windows is functional, but it can also be very slow and is somewhat lacking in features. Plus, it doesn’t always do a thorough job and can leave files and shortcuts behind. However, here are uninstaller programs, which should ensure an application can be completely removed from your computer. Revo Uninstaller Price: Free; Pro version £17 Download link: tinyurl.com/h92yug4 Revo Uninstaller provides a number of ways to track down and list…

Windows 10 has some nice features for multi-monitor set-ups. One of which is the ability to display the taskbar on only one monitor. Changing this setting really comes down to preference. Sure, there are some good reasons to keep the taskbar on both monitors. Since the Anniversary Update, for example, the taskbar clock is displayed on both monitors. For gamers or people watching a movie that creates an easy way to keep an eye on the time. Nevertheless, some people prefer the cleaner look of having the taskbar on a single display. In Windows 10, this is really easy to set up, but first let’s make sure we’ve got the right display chosen as your main monitor. Once you’ve switched, the taskbar will only show up on your primary display.…

Read Facebook messages on an Android or iPhone When you send a message on Facebook Messenger you’ll see a blue circle with a tick inside appear next to it. Then, if the recipient opens it, this will disappear. That’s how you know it’s been read. Facebook doesn’t have a setting that allows you turn off the read receipts the sender receives when you open up a message from them, but there are workarounds that can give you some control over this feature. The most effective way of stopping read receipts is to prevent the app itself talking to the internet. To do this you just need to use Airplane mode. When you want to read the message but don’t want the sender to know the first thing to do is…

Right now, PC chips are the first to get upgraded based on new architectures, but that will change in the coming years with server processors getting the first shot at upgrades Intel is changing its view on how it upgrades chips. Rather than tying chip upgrades directly to the manufacturing process involved, the firm will look at delivering a sustained set of performance upgrades with each new chip architecture. “We’re going to be focused more on the generation by the amount of performance increment it will give us,” explained Venkata Renduchintala, president of Intel’s Client and Internet of Things businesses and its Systems Architecture Group. “I don’t think generations will be tagged to node transitions.” The performance benefits will matter more, and the process technology that lives underneath is going…

Nintendo has a lot on its plate after shipping the Switch game console last month. While the hardware itself is excellent (read our review on page 46), the Virtual Console for classic games isn’t available, the company’s in-game rewards programme is incomplete, capturing and sharing in-game video is not yet possible, there’s no online backup for saves and other data, and the list of available games is pretty short. It’s a bit strange, then, that Nintendo is adding a superfluous task to its to-do list. Speaking to the Washington Post, Nintendo America CEO Reggie Fils-Aime said the company is talking to streaming-video providers such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu about getting their apps onto the Switch. This doesn’t make much sense. Instead of playing to its strengths in gaming, Nintendo…

Nearly two-thirds of consumers are worried about home IoT devices listening in on their conversations, according to a recent Gartner survey. Those jitters aren’t too surprising after recent news items about TV announcers inadvertently activating viewers’ Amazon Echos, or about data from digital assistants being used as evidence in criminal trials. But privacy concerns are just one hurdle smart homes still have to overcome, according to the survey. In fact, the survey found that most consumers don’t feel they need what smart homes offer. Consumer IoT is still in an early-adopter phase, Gartner concluded from the online survey, which was conducted in the second half of 2016 in the US, UK, and Australia. Nearly 10,000 people responded. Connecting home appliances to each other and the internet can make life easier…

Mozilla has updated Firefox to version 52, which warns users when they put passwords into non-encrypted websites, bars all plug-ins other than Adobe’s Flash Player, and adds support for an under-consideration technology standard that claims to run web apps at nearly the same speed as native code. Firefox 52 also patches 28 security vulnerabilities, a half dozen of them tagged with the ‘Critical’ label. On another security front, the browser now pops up a warning message when users start to type in a password into a page not secured – and encrypted – with HTTPS. The prohibition applies to NPAPI plug-ins, (Netscape Plug-in Application Programming Interface) a format from the 1990s and Netscape, the browser Microsoft buried in its antitrust-triggering battle over the browser market. NPAPI has now been banned…

The lid and underside of the Dell XPS 15 are aluminium, but the insides around the keyboard are soft-touch carbon-fibre reinforced plastic £1,799 inc VAT Buy from tinyurl.com/jrpxega Specifications 15.6in (3840x2160, 282ppi) 4K IPS LCD glossy; Windows 10 Home 64-bit; 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ (3.8GHz boost) 4 cores, 8 threads; Nvidia GTX 1050 GPU with 4GB RAM; up to 32GB 2400MHz DDR4 RAM; up to 1TB SSD; 802.11b/g/n/ac single-band 2x2 MIMO; Bluetooth 4.1; 1x USB-C 3.1; 2x USB 3.0; HDMI; Kensington security slot; SDXC card slot; stereo speakers; HD webcam; single mic; 3.5mm headset jack; UK tiled keyboard with numberpad; two-button trackpad; 57Wh lithium-ion battery, removable; 357x235x17mm; 2kg; one-year on-site warranty The Dell XPS 15 9560 one of the best laptops in the world if you want a computer that…

£29 inc VAT Buy from tinyurl.com/n94cd3f Specifications Bluetooth 4.1; HFP, HSP, AVRCP, A2DP; CSR; CVC 6.0; 360x28x41mm; 20g The SoundPEATS Q25 are wireless earphones aimed at sporty types. Two in-ear audio buds attached to a flexible rubber strap, the idea is that you affix them in your ears and make the fit secure by using the strap lock at the back of your head. Sweatproof, secure and hands-free, they should be ideal for working out. Price At the time of writing, the SoundPEATS were available for £29, although stock was low. This puts them at the bargain basement end of wireless audio devices. Cheaper even than £50 products such as the Urbanista Boston, and in a different league to the standard decent quality products such as the Sennheiser OCX 686i…

£153 inc VAT Buy from tinyurl.com/kzLf68n Specifications Web Link hub: Ethernet connection, 101x30x101mm, 218g One-gang master switches: Stainless steel; 88x28x88mm; 118g LightwaveRF is a smart-home solution that offers not only lighting but devices for controlling your heating and power. Its products can be remotely controlled via a mobile app or PC, making it an ideal solution for use when you’re home or away. What it is, what it does We have tested only Lightwave’s smart lighting controls, but the company offers much more beyond this. You can set up devices that control your hot water and individual room heating, motion detection, and the opening and closing of blinds or curtains. You can also install smart switches on your plug sockets that allow you to turn on and off power when…

£279 inc VAT Buy from tinyurl.com/L82h8nx Specifications Nvidia custom Tegra processor; Nvidia GPU; 32GB storage; microSD card slot; 6.2in 1280x720 touchscreen; USB-C port; HDMI 1080p output; Wi-Fi; 6-hour battery life After all the waiting, the Nintendo Switch is finally here, boasting a hybrid design that’ll provide both console and on-the-go gaming. Design It’s like no other console we’ve seen before and is a little hard to describe in terms of design. That’s because the Switch has been designed so you can use it in various different ways, not just as a box that plugs into your TV and stays put. TV mode The main part of the device is essentially a tablet, so requires docking to turn into a console you play on the TV, hence the ‘TV mode’. Other…

AMD’s new high-end Ryzen 7 processors are fantastic, going head to head with Intel’s cheapest 8-core chips in productivity tasks at a whopping 50 percent cost savings – or more if you opt anything but the flagship Ryzen 7 1800X. No, Ryzen chips don’t offer the same raw gaming performance as Intel’s quad-core processors. That’s indisputable. But neither do the high-end Intel Extreme Edition processors that are Ryzen’s true peers. While comparing Ryzen against Intel quad-cores is illuminating for potential upgraders focused solely on gaming, it’s not quite apples to apples. A more realistic way to look at it: Intel’s quad-core Core i5 and Core i7 chips are excellent gaming chips with decent productivity chops, while Ryzen and Intel’s Extreme Edition CPUs are killer productivity and content-creation processors that are…

Despite being around for just a handful of months, VR has inspired new genres of computers, wormed its way deep into Windows, and sent the price of graphics cards plummeting After years of teases, tantalising promises, and Kickstarter campaigns, virtual reality finally became actual reality in 2016, with VR’s mere existence thrusting the entire PC industry into glorious, wonderful turmoil. Despite being around for just a handful of months, it has already inspired new genres of computers, wormed its way deep into Windows, and sent the price of graphics cards plummeting. Not too shabby for its first real year on the streets, though the implementations could still use some fine-tuning. Let’s look back at how this wild new frontier blossomed in 2016. The birth of consumer VR From the very…

Sometimes, just saving a tap or two can make you feel so efficient, if not actually more productive. This is the aim of Android’s new app shortcuts—small, pop-up shortcut buttons that appear when you long-press on a home-screen app icon. Some of the available Android app shortcuts, which you’ll find on handsets running Android 7.1.1 or later, are more useful than others. For example, I could do without the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ shortcut in the Google Photos app, which simply opens a random snapshot. But a shortcut that lets you take one-tap scans of receipts? That’s interesting. Here are eight of the more useful Android app shortcuts, from a quick way to free up storage space on your device to a shortcut that lets you record an audio note. 1…

A tiny BIOS chip lurks inside every computer, sitting on your motherboard to breathe life into your system when you press the power button. BIOS stands for basic input and output system, and the BIOS chip initialises all the other devices in your PC, like the CPU, GPU, and motherboard chipset. A few years ago, motherboard manufacturers – in partnership with Microsoft and Intel –introduced a replacement for traditional BIOS chips dubbed UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). Almost every motherboard shipping today has a UEFI chip rather than a BIOS chip, but they both share the same core purpose: preparing the system to boot into the operating system. That said, most people still call the UEFI the ‘BIOS’ because of the familiarity of the term. Why you should (or shouldn’t)…

There has to be an easier way for your Android phone to recognise you besides a passcode, a PIN or a pattern lock. A fingerprint reader is a good start, but they still have a way of failing even when you swipe your fingertip perfectly on the sensor, thus forcing you to enter a PIN or swipe pattern to unlock your own device. The good news is that Android offers a series of clever ways of unlocking your device without passcodes, patterns or fingertip swipes; the latest handsets, for example, can keep themselves unlocked while they’re riding in your pocket. You can also set Android to recognise your face or your voice. Finally, your phone can unlock itself whenever you’re home, at work or near a ‘trusted’ device such as…

1. Plug in your removable flash drive and run the ‘lsblk’ command in a terminal window. Here is the output of the ‘lsblk’ command on our system where ‘sdb’ is the flash storage: 2. There are many command line tools to do the job, but lately we started using ‘parted’ more, so that’s the utility we will be using for this tutorial. Run the ‘parted’ command with the name of the block device that you want to format. In this case, it’s ‘sdb’. (Be careful with the name of the block device because you might end up formatting the wrong drive.) 3. Exchange ‘sdb’ with the name of your block device in the following command: sudo parted /dev/sdb 4. It will ask you to enter the password for the user…

So when did Mobile World Congress turn into Mobile World Classic? While the LG G6 and Moto G5s created a healthy amount of buzz in Barcelona this year, the hottest gadgets weren’t the usual cutting-edge marvels. They were retro-flavoured releases that brought back a feature long relegated to the technology graveyard: tiny keys. Now, a certain amount of nostalgia-driven excitement is understandable. I’ll admit that the new Nokia 3310 stirred something in me that none of the glass-and-metal handsets did, but we’re not about to start seeing Samsung slap a keyboard on the Note 8. The Palm Treo isn’t walking through the door. There’s a reason why the few phones with keypads are relegated to the most out-of-the-way corners of your local store. No one wants them. The key to…