Table of contents for October 2016 in Tech Advisor

As the notebook PC becomes ever more important to the company’s future, AMD debuted its Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge integrated graphics APUs for laptops at the Computex show in Taipei. Combined, AMD’s new seventh-generation APUs represent a total of nine new products intended for low-end, budget notebooks on up to premium devices. Bristol Ridge and Stony Ridge represent AMD’s first APU refresh in a year, since the company debuted the Carrizo chips last May. The chipmaker’s traditional argument for its APUs has been that they offer more graphics horsepower for a lower price. This time around, both the Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge APUs pack AMD’s Excavator core, which will be paired with AMD’s Radeon R7 graphics cores on the FX and A12 lines; AMD’s R5 graphics on the…

Much virtual ink gets spilled each week enumerating the many horrors that could be ours in an AI-filled world, but top researchers in the field are already thinking ahead and making plans to ensure none of that happens. In particular, the importance of making artificial intelligence ‘human-aware’ has come to be viewed as a top imperative for the field, earning it special status as an official theme of the recent International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. “It’s crucial that we design smart systems to work well with people,” argued Harvard professor Barbara Grosz during a panel discussion at the conference. “It’s an imperative, not an option.” AI should be a complement for human intelligence, not a replacement, Grosz said. As such, an ability to understand who it’s interacting with and…

Chrome reached a major milestone in July when it was used by more than half of those browsing from a personal computer. According to US analytics vendor Net Applications, Chrome’s user share grew by more than 2 percentage points in July, the fourth time in the past six months that its gains were of that size, to end the month at 51 percent. In the past 12 months, Chrome has added 23.1 percentage points to its user share, starting that stretch with less than 30 percent and ending by owning a majority of the worldwide desktop browser market. Only two browsers have controlled more than half of the global browser share this century: Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), which held a majority until December 2015, and now Chrome. Throughout 2016, most…

£199 inc VAT Contact asus.com/uk Specifications 10.1in WXGA (1280x800, 149ppi) fully laminated IPS display with Gorilla Glass and oleophobic coating; Android 5.0 Lollipop; 64-bit 1.1GHz Intel Atom x3-C3200 quad-core processor; Mali-450 MP4 GPU; 2GB RAM; 16GB storage, 5GB lifetime Asus web storage space, 100GB Google Drive space for two years; microSD support up to 64GB; 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0; Miracast; 2Mp (1600x1200) rear camera; 0.3Mp (640x480) front camera; 2x front speaker with DTS HD Premium Sound, Sonic Master technology, aptX; Micro-USB; headphone jack; GPS, GLONASS; 18Wh battery; 251.6x172x7.9mm; 510g (dock adds 415g) The ZenPad 10 has a low price, a nice design, a UK keyboard, great sound, microSD support and okay battery life on its side, but it’s also slow and running old, bloated software. It can’t stand up to…

£199 inc VAT Contact motorola.co.uk Specifications 5in (1280x720, 294ppi) IPS touchscreen; Android Marshmallow 6.0.1; 2GHz Mediatek MT6755; Helio P10 Mali-T860MP2 GPU; 2GB RAM; 16GB storage microSD expandable up to 200GB; 13Mp main camera, LED flash; 8Mp front camera; Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.1; 4G LTE; Nano-SIM; GPS; NFC; 2300mAh non-removable battery; 143.6x66.8x7.9mm; 137.4g Motorola has updated its best budget smartphone line-up for 2016 with two different models: the G4 (£169) and the Plus, which we look at here. Despite its name, the Plus isn’t any bigger, but comes with a fingerprint scanner, extra RAM and storage, plus a higher resolution camera. Design The G4 Plus is a stylish-looking handset that retains the look and feel of previous Moto G phones. It’s bigger than Motorola’s previous generation of Moto phones due…

If you’re going to use the M20 as a dash cam, there’s a dedicated ‘car’ mode, which enables automatic recording when the power is turned on £84 inc VAT Contact sjcamhd.com Specifications 1.5in LCD screen; video resolution 4K, 24fps (2880x2160), 2K, 30fps, 1080p, 60fps, 720p, 60fps; 170-degree field of view; MP4, MOV; Wi-Fi; gyro sensor: speaker; 75 minutes battery life at 1080p30 (Wi-Fi off); waterproof housing, open housing, various adhesive mounts, belt clip, tripod mount; Micro-USB, micro HDMI, microSD slot; 54x40x24mm; 55g The M20 is SJCAM’s lightest camera to date. Even the cuboid M10 which came before it was larger and roughly 10g heavier. At only 55g, the M20 is ideal for mounting on your drone. However, it’s also great as an all-purpose action camera, and will also work as…

From £54 inc VAT Contact uk.tp-link.com Specifications TL-PA8010PKIT: HomePlug AV2 standard compliant, high-speed data transfer rates of up to 1200Mb/s; 1x Gigabit port per adaptor; Integrated power socket. TL-PA8030PKIT: HomePlug AV2 standard compliant, high-speed data transfer rates of up to 1200Mb/s; 3x Gigabit port per adaptor; integrated power socket Powerline is an incredibly easy way to set up your own speedy home network. Plug one adaptor into the wall socket near the router, then connect the other to the router via Ethernet cable. Finally, take the other Powerline adaptor and plug that into a power socket near a TV/Sky+, Xbox and so on. TP-Link’s AV1200 Gigabit Powerline Adaptor Starter Kit uses the latest chips to make it one of the fastest we’ve tested. Four models are available: TL-PA8010KIT (£54), TL-PA8010PKIT…

The CHJGD supports auto-on, which means you plug in a phone and it will start charging without you needing to fiddle around with any buttons £19 inc VAT Contact chargedpower.com Specifications 10,000mAh power bank; 1x 5V/1A (5W) Micro-USB input; 1x 5V/2.1A (10.5W) USB output; passthrough charging; auto-on; four-LED status system; flat Micro-USB cable with Lightning adaptor supplied; 93x19x63mm; 181g; one-year warranty Having waded through a sea of boring black plastic power banks, the cool-looking CHJGD UltraCompact Power Bank offers welcome relief. The colourful bulldog design might not be to your taste, but CHJGD also offers options including a Lamborghini, Marilyn Monroe and a sunflower design. CHJGD hasn’t simply added a graphic in an effort to improve power bank design, it’s also incorporated a soft-touch rubber casing and managed to squeeze…

With the combined benefits of increased speed and better range, 802.11ac is better than every version of Wi-Fi before it. However, the first generation of ‘ac’ routers weren’t that impressive on range. Now, though, we’re onto what manufacturers are calling Wave 2 802.11ac and the difference is huge. The latest models are capable of delivering previously unheard of speeds over greater distances, so much so that you should get a signal in the far corner of a room where before you would have resorted to Powerline networking adaptors or a Wi-Fi repeater. One way that 802.11ac can go so much faster is the use of multiple aerials, as we’ve already seen with 802.11n. But 11ac is more efficient, with a theoretical maximum of 433Mb/s per stream. Compare this with 150Mb/s…

The back of the Linksys EA9500 also features a whopping eight Gigabit Ethernet ports, twice the standard complement £329 inc VAT • linksys.com/uk Things are really moving on in the world of routers. Just a couple of years ago, a router that was a bit larger than average and sporting two aerials was enough to raise the eyebrows. Next to the Linksys EA9500, however, and these would look positively discreet. Design Make no mistake: that this thing is huge – more than twice as big as most routers, so you’ll need to find the space for it. It also has eight aerials sticking out too, giving it the appearance of a flipped beetle – it’s not much of a looker unless you’re a big sci-fi fan. It has a rectangular…

There’s a reason the sequence 123456 remains the most popular password. We tend to use passwords we can easily recall. And that means they’re easy to hack. A good password manager is the best way to relieve the burden of memorizing complex logins and keep your data secure. These tools encrypt your login info in a virtual vault – either locally or in the cloud – and lock it with a single master password. Considering that the security of sensitive data is at stake, you shouldn’t take choosing a password manager lightly. This guide will tell you what features to look for in a password manager and compare four of the best. Password managers come with myriad features, but at a minimum they should have the following capabilities: Password generation:…

It’s easy to forget that home automation is about more than just gadgets. Almost every product you can think of is getting the smart home treatment – from the highly useful, such as automated locks, to the less so: smart fridges that tell you when you’re out of milk. But for the elderly, smart tech means more than just a few new toys. It holds the promise of autonomy and being able to stay in homes longer and more safely, which can be completely life-changing. Institutional elderly care, as it currently stands, is imperfect at best. Most pressingly, it’s unaffordable for many. Indeed, costs range anywhere from £500 to over £3,000 per month. But for all that money, it’s not all that effective, either. Initial studies indicate that staying in…

With most of us owning and using multiple PCs, tablets and smartphones it can be hard sometimes to know where that important file or image can be found. Cloud services make this easier of course, and there’s plenty of choice at the moment, but when it comes to moving big files things can often get ponderous. Here’s how to share large files between devices using ShareOnWifi. Downloading ShareOnWifi ShareOnWifi is a service that allows you to quickly share large (or small) files over Wi-Fi. Apps are available for Windows, OS X and Android, so you can transfer apps, videos, music, images, folders, or whatever takes your fancy between your PC and Android phone, PC and PC, and so on. The service boasts speeds of up to 50Mb/s, and works when…

Bluetooth or wireless keyboard and mouse Bluetooth This route is the neater option as there are already a wide range of Bluetooth keyboards and keyboard/stand hybrids available for Android tablets. In the past we’ve been impressed with the likes of the Inateck BK1003E Ultra-Slim Universal keyboard, alongside efforts from Microsoft and Belkin, but pretty much any Bluetooth keyboard should work. You might be surprised to know that a Bluetooth mouse also works on Android, and once you’ve paired the device with the tablet you’ll see a pointer icon appear on the screen, just like it would on Windows. It’s not exactly the same, as different apps seem to respond in different ways to button presses, but it doesn’t take long to work out what’s what and soon you’ll be pointing…

Add the contents of multiple cells START Once you’ve got a few numbers in your spreadsheet, pick an empty cell and then click it to start typing (double-tap the cell if you’re using it on a touchscreen without a keyboard). Now type =sum( and then use your mouse (or a finger) to select all the cells you wish to add together. 2 Excel will fill in the details and leave those cells highlighted so you can see which are included. Simply add a ) to close off the calculation and press Enter to display the result in the cell. If you need to select cells which aren’t together in a block, hold down the Ctrl key and click on individual cells or click and drag to select another range. Each…

The European Commission (EC) has added new antitrust charges against Google in the areas of search and advertising as it continues to investigate the internet search giant. The EC recently charged Google in a ‘Statement of Objections’ that the company has placed restrictions on the ability of certain third-party websites to display search advertisements from the search giant’s competitors. Google places search ads directly on the its search website, but also as an intermediary on third-party websites through its AdSense for Search platform, according to the EC. As a result, the company has prevented existing and potential competitors, including other search providers and online advertising platforms, from entering and growing in this lucrative area, according to the EC. A Statement of Objections is a formal step in the EC’s antitrust…

There are plenty of companies vying for a piece of the worldwide cloud infrastructure market, but the top four – all in the US – currently dominate by such a wide margin as to effectively leave their competitors in the dust. That’s the overriding conclusion of a study released by Synergy Research Group, which provides quarterly market tracking and segmentation data, including vendor revenues by segment and region. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, and Google collectively control more than half of the worldwide cloud infrastructure service market, Synergy found, with an overwhelming lead by AWS, which held a 31 percent share in the second quarter. Microsoft came next with 11 percent, while IBM weighed in at 8 percent and Google came in with 5 percent. Synergy included Infrastructure as a…

£929 inc VAT Contact dell.co.uk Specifications 12.5 in (1366x768) LCD screen; Windows 7 or 10 Pro; 2.4GHz Intel Core i5; 8GB DDR4; 128GB SSD; Intel HD 520; Wi-Fi 802.11ac; Gigabit ethernet; Bluetooth; 2x USB 3.0; DisplayPort; HDMI; media card slot; headphone jack, mic; HD webcam; 55Wh Lithium-ion battery; three-year warranty; 310.5x215.5x18.9mm; 1.26kg If one thing has helped Apple get into the business laptop game it’s because its products are simply marketed – there’s basically only three laptops to choose from. Dell has, in recent years, lost its once-firm stranglehold on the business laptop market and this may be down to its overly confusing range of products. What’s certain is that if you, or your business, needs a laptop to work on all day away from a plug, yet with a…

£269 inc VAT Contact sony.co.uk Specifications 5in (1280x720, 294ppi) IPS touchscreen; Android Marshmallow 6.0; 2GHz Mediatek MT6755; Helio P10 Mali-T860MP2 graphics; 2GB RAM; 16GB storage; microSD expandable up to 200GB; 13Mp main camera, LED flash; 8Mp front camera; Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.1; 4G LTE; Nano-SIM; GPS; NFC; 2300mAh non-removable battery; 143.6x66.8x7.9mm; 137.4g For the past few years, Sony has updated its Xperia Z range almost every six months, an act that not only frustrates fans locked into two-year contracts, who see several new handsets hit the market, but also makes us wonder if the firm is clutching at straws. The Xperia Z5 was an excellent phone, but now the flagship model appears to be the Xperia X – that’s not this phone though. Released at the same time at…

£129 inc VAT Contact y-cam.com Specifications IP Camera; 100-degree field of view; 1280x720 resolution; H.264 (MPEG4); night vision up to 8m Connectivity; Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz; Bluetooth 4.1 two-way audio (coming in a future software update); 52x52x28mm (camera only); 52x70x57mm; 96g (with stand) The Evo is a new indoor security camera that’s part of Y-Cam’s HomeMonitor range. It’s tiny and has a few handy new features that make it one of the best home security cameras around. Like previous HomeMonitor cameras, the Evo comes with free cloud recording that stores a week’s worth of videos for free. This is great news if you dislike the idea of paying a subscription as you have to with the Nest Cam. However, the Evo doesn’t record continuously like the Nest Cam: it only…

£79 inc VAT Contact en.kehan.com Specifications 4in display; 120-degree wide-angle lens; HDR Mode; supports microSD up to 32GB; 4 hours SD card recording time; 108x60mm; 4m car charger; suction mount, mini USB cable There are lots of good-quality dash cams to choose between, but the majority record only what happens in front of you. With the Kehan K300, you get a second camera on a long wire which records the view behind your car as well, giving you evidence in the event that someone rear-ends you. Design Open the K300’s box and you’d be forgiven for thinking the wrong product has been sent as, from the rear, this dash cam looks like a small smartphone. It has a 4in screen – much larger than usual – and this means it’s…

£199 inc VAT Contact viewsoniceurope.com/uk Specifications 27in (1920x1080,) IPS matt display; 16:9 aspect ratio; 60Hz refresh rate; 4ms response time; 250cd/m2 quoted brightness; 211.6cd/m2 tested brightness; 1000:1 static contract ratio; HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, Aux In and Out; 621x209x463mm (including stand); 3.71kg (including stand); 3-year warranty ViewSonic’s VX2776-SMHD is a 27in full HD monitor with an elegant design and great colour accuracy. At £199, it’s more expensive than many of its competitors, though. Design As you can see from our image this is certainly a good-looking display. Alongside its silver bezel and brushed aluminium base, the monitor has a borderless design around the sides and top, which helps the image stand out and gives a more cinematic experience. As for the stand, it allows you to move the unit five degrees…

We found that if we camped out in one (well covered) location and tried to take on the KPA reinforcements they would soon outflank us From £29 inc VAT Contact dsdambuster.com Specifications Windows 7 or later; Xbox One; PlayStation 4 Dambuster Studios has rebooted the 2011 classic Homefront, and given it an open world spin. Homefront: The Revolution received a warm reception when it was announced, but does it deserve cheers or jeers? Story The concept behind the game is an interesting one: it’s set in an alternate timeline in 2029, and North Korea has taken over the US after it defaulted on its debt. (It was the Asian country that experienced the a tech boom in the 1970s and not the US.) The Korean People’s Army (KPA) is in…

£159 inc VAT • asus.com/uk The RT-AC87U has many claims to fame, Asus would be keen to tell you, including that it was the first router to offer a 4x4 antenna capability combined with MU-MIMO technology. What does that all mean? We’ll look at performance later, but it indicates that the router should be fast, and very capable in homes with multiple wireless devices connected. However, those devices will need MU-MIMO enabled Wi-Fi radios inside to take advantage of the feature. There are several new smartphones that support it, such as the Samsung Galaxy S7, Nexus 5X, and Microsoft Lumia 950, and several laptops from Acer, such as the Aspire V15 Nitro. No current Apple device includes it. The fact that it’s been out for a while is good thing…

£189inc VAT • uk.tp-link.com When it was first introduced 802.11ac introduced a significant increase in performance over the previous generation 802.11n. It’s now been standard for a while and the industry is moving rapidly on to what’s known as ‘Wave 2’ devices – those that support a new feature called MU-MIMO or Multi-User MIMO. It’s designed to make the most efficient use of the bandwidth that 802.11ac delivers, but enabling the routers to communicate with multiple devices simultaneously. To take advantage of it client devices will need MU-MIMO enabled Wi-Fi radios inside them too. It can be found in several new smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S7, Nexus 5X and Microsoft Lumia 950, and several laptops from Acer, such as the Aspire V15 Nitro. However, no current…

Intel’s storage czar has a thing or two to say about the future of drive technology, naturally, but it’s not all party line. We recently sat down with Bill Leszinske, who heads Intel’s NVM (non-volatile memory) Solutions Group, to get his take on interfaces, hard drives versus solid-state drives, and when storage and RAM will merge. SATA Express who? Remember the SATA Express port? It arose in 2013, intended as an evolution of the slower SATA interface. While some systems began supporting the interface, however, drives for it never appeared – at least none we’ve ever seen. SSD performance also quickly eclipsed the capabilities of SATA Express. SATA Express may never officially have been declared dead, but to Intel’s drive division, at least, it is. “I’m not planning to offer…

The activity of Romanian hacker Marcel Lehel Lazar (Guccifer), who has admitted to compromising almost 100 email and social media accounts belonging to US government officials, politicians, and other high-profile individuals, is the latest proof that humans are the weakest link in computer security. Lazar, 44, is not a hacker in the technical sense of the word. He’s a social engineer: a clever and persistent individual with a lot of patience who a Romanian prosecutor once described as “the obsessive-compulsive type”. By his own admission, Lazar has no programming skills. He didn’t find vulnerabilities or write exploits. Instead, he’s good at investigating, finding information online and making connections. He recently pleaded guilty to a protected computer and aggravated identity theft. It might be a good idea, especially for high-ranking politicians,…

Millions of people have a Google account and this makes them a prime target for criminals hoping to sell your valuable personal information. It’s crucial that you have a strong password, and not one that’s easily guessed. Ideally, it should contain a mixture of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and punctuation. Passwords can still be broken with the right tools, though. Google is well aware of the threat and has introduced a second layer of security called two-step verification. After enabling this extra security, you’ll need both your password and a unique code to log into your account. This code is sent to you in a text message or voicemail – something that the hackers are extremely unlikely to be able to access. Enabling two-step verification START To enable two-step…

Music player One of the most popular ways to recycle an old phone is to strip off all the apps and turn it into a dedicated music player. Doing this means it can then be used in a dock at home, which will also power the unit if its aging battery is struggling, or via a bluetooth speaker system. With streaming services so widely available you don’t even need that much storage as long as you have an internet connection. Fancy a small juke box in the kitchen? Now you have one. Alternatively you can use an old phone as your portable MP3 player at the gym or when you’re out running, thus avoiding damaging that expensive new handset in the rain. Alarm clock There are a wealth of alarm…

One of our favourite features of YouTube’s mobile apps is its multitasking mode. This genius feature allows you to continue watching a video in a smaller panel while searching for other items within the app. We’ve often wished we could do that on a PC since the only alternative is to open a new tab and use Windows’ Snap feature to see the video and the rest of YouTube at the same time. That is, unless you use a handy Chrome extension called YouTube Picture in Picture (beta), which brings YouTube multitasking to your PC. First, you’ll need to download and install Picture in Picture from the Chrome Web store (tinyurl.com/ccmetrr). Once that’s done, you’re ready to start. There are no settings to tweak or functions requiring you to click…

Tablets and laptops with Intel’s seventh-generation Core chips codenamed Kaby Lake should become available in the coming months. Intel is shipping Kaby Lake chips to PC makers now, CEO Brian Krzanich during Intel’s recent earnings call. Systems with new processors usually become available a few months after Intel delivers the chips. Kaby Lake will succeed current Skylake Core processor. The new chip has the underpinnings of Skylake and won’t necessarily be smaller in size, but it’ll provide speed improvements over its predecessor, Krzanich said. That raises a question: should you wait a few months for Kaby Lake instead of upgrading to a Skylake PC now? Experts generally say you should buy a PC as and when you need it rather than wait for the next improvement to come along. Nevertheless,…

With more possible board combinations than there are atoms in the universe, Go has long been considered the ultimate challenge for AI researchers AlphaGo’s uncanny success at the game of Go was taken by many as a death knell for the dominance of the human intellect, but Google researcher David Silver doesn’t see it that way. Instead, he sees a world of potential benefits. As one of the lead architects behind Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo system, which defeated South Korean Go champion Lee Se-dol 4 games to 1 in March (pictured above), Silver believes the technology’s next role should be to help advance human health. “We’d like to use these technologies to have a positive impact in the real world,” he told an audience of AI researchers at the International Joint…

Tablet shipments reached their lowest point in three years in the second quarter of 2016, according to analyst firm Canalys. However, analysts at Canalys and IDC are seeing a glimmer of hope for the devices with business demand for detachable tablets such as the Microsoft Surface Pro and the iPad Pro. The Windows 10 Anniversary Update could further the business trend toward detachable tablets as could the next version of Android, called Nougat, with its better multitasking support. Canalys reported 35 million tablets shipped in the second quarter, down 16 percent from a year ago. IDC found overall shipments reached 38.7 million, a decline of 12.3 percent. According to Canalys, Apple tablets took the top spot with a 28 percent share of the market, while Samsung took a 16 percent…

£1,095 inc VAT Contact dell.co.uk Specifications 13.3in Full-HD (1920x1080) non-touchscreen LCD; Intel Core i5-5300U (3M Cache, up to 2.9GHz); 8GB RAM; 32GB SSD; 1x USB 3.0; 1x USB 2.0; 1x HDMI 1.4; microSD; Noble Lock Slot; precision touchpad; seamless glass integrated button: 105x60mm; dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac; Bluetooth 4.0; LE wireless card; 67Wh battery, 1-year Collect and Return warranty; 3812x253x20mm; 1.72kg In recent years Dell has impressed with its range of consumer Chromebooks, so much so that the Dell Chromebook 11 sits at the top of our Best Chromebooks 2016 chart (page 124). Now the PC manufacturer has returned with a slightly different beast aimed squarely at the business market. The quality of the build materials has gone up, as has the price, so we take a look at the Chromebook…

£459 inc VAT Contact sony.co.uk Specifications 5in (1920x1080) Full HD curved display; Android 6.0 Marshmallow; Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor; 3GB RAM; 32GB storage; microSD card slot (up to 200GB); 23Mp rear camera with Predictive Hybrid Auto Focus, 1080p video recording; 13Mp front camera, 1080p video recording; Bluetooth 4.2; GPS; NFC; Fingerprint scanner; Cat 6 4G LTE Micro-USB; 2620mAh battery; 142x69x7.9mm; 153g Sony’s Xperia X offers specifications that sit just below its flagship Z range, plus some interesting new features for the camera and screen. Design The Xperia X has a 5in screen surrounded by small bezels, resulting in a sleek and stylish design that we were instantly attracted to. It doesn’t have the edge-to-edge screen of the Xperia XA (page 24), but it’s not far off and we think it…

£419 inc VAT Contact uk.msi.com Specifications Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070; Core clock (standard/ boost): OC Mode: 1607MHz/1797MHz, Gaming Mode: 1582MHz/1771MHz, Silent Mode: 1506Hz/1683MHz; 256-bit memory bus width; 1920 CUDA cores; DirectX 12, level 12_1; Vulkan; OpenGL 4.5; Multi-Projection; VR Ready; LI Ready; SLI HB Bridge Supported; GB GDDR5; MSI Twin Frozr V cooler; 1x 8-pin, 1x 6-pin; 150W; power consumption; PCIe 3.0; Windows 7-10, Linux, FreeBSDx86; 3x DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0b, Dual-link DVI; HDCP 2.2; 3 simultaneous outputs; 2 slots; 279x140mm; MSI Afterburner; MSI Gaming App The blistering performance and advanced features of Nvidia’s best graphics card, the GTX 1080, may be taking all the glory right now. But, it’s often the next step down in the range which can offer the best bang for your buck. Here we review…

£116 inc VAT Contact samsung.com/uk Specifications 500GB SSD; 512MB LPDDR3; Samsung MGX Controller; AES 256-bit FDE encryption; TLC NAND Flash technology SATA III 6GB/s connection; claimed power consumption: 2.5W active/ 0.5W idle; three-year warranty; 69.85x100x6.8mm The 750 Evo is Samsung’s attempt to bring cheap SSDs to the masses. In essence, it’s a combination of the company’s 850 Evo and the older 840 Evo. Features The drive uses Samsung’s own MGX Controller, which the tech giant claims offers lower latency between the processor and its 512MB LPDDR3 DRAM cache memory. It means the drive performs better as 1s and 0s are transferred faster within the SSD’s architecture. It also uses standard 2D TLC (triple level cell) flash. This is the cheapest type used in SSDs and suffers from more read/write errors,…

£26 inc VAT Contact ravpower.com Specifications 22,000mAh power bank; 1x 5V/2.4A (12W) Micro-USB input; 3x 5V/2.4A (12W) USB outputs; max output 5V/5.8A (29W); iSmart technology; four-LED status system; auto-on; passthrough charging; carry case; 2x flat Micro-USB cables supplied; 165x70x24mm; 406g; 18-month warranty If you’re going on a long journey and have kids, a phone or tablet can be the first port of call to keeping them entertained – for as long as the battery lasts in any case. The RAVPower Ace 22,000mAh External Battery Pack can be a lifesaver in times such as this, since it’s both affordable and one of few power banks to have three USB outputs. These are fast-charging outputs, too – not in Quick Charge 3.0-league, but significantly faster than a conventional phone charger rated at…

From £29 inc VAT Contact playoverwatch.com/en-uk Specifications Windows 8 or later; Xbox One; PlayStation 4 Overwatch is Blizzard’s latest multiplayer first-person shooter (there’s no single-player mode), and while it’s by no means flawless, we had great fun playing it. Characters There are 21 characters to choose from, each of which belongs to one of four classes: attack, defence, tank and support. The latter is the least represented with just four, which is a shame. With so many heroes there’s plenty of variation, even within each class, and you’re bound to find one to suit your personal style of play. You can also switch character during a match, so you’re not stuck with a hero until the end. Unlimited switching means you can try out lots of heroes within one match…

It has the same upright form factor as its predecessors, which is ideal for placing on a shelf or table as it has a small footprint FREE for new and existing customers (Free, new contract) £129 inc VAT for non-BT customers • shop.bt.com The new BT Smart Hub isn’t your run-of-the-mill ISP router offering. No, this is a major upgrade from its predecessor, the Home Hub 5, that’s a compelling reason for BT customers to recontract. Here’s the good part. The Smart Hub is free. That’s right: if you’re a new BT customer you’ll get a free Smart Hub included in your broadband package. If you’re an existing customer out of contract, all you need to do is recontract for 12 months and you’ll get a Smart Hub for free.…

I’m sitting at my desk on a Monday afternoon, ready to smash something. I’ve spent the past four hours trying to finish a task that usually takes less than half that time. But this isn’t a typical day. It’s the first day in a week where I vowed to work exclusively in Windows 10 Mobile’s desktop Continuum mode via my Lumia 950 instead of on my proper PC. Goodbye AAA games, traditional desktop applications, and easy multitasking. Hello, mobile software and a struggling app ecosystem. Why did I sign up for this again? Because Continuum offers an interesting premise: instead of toting around a laptop, just plug a phone into an external mouse, keyboard and monitor to switch to a desktop-like experience. Imagine being able to leave the laptop at…

While Gmail delights in any browser, it’s particularly powerful when used in Google Chrome thanks to the wealth of extensions that expand its capabilities. Here we look at a few add-ons that fill some holes in Gmail’s functionality and help keep your inbox under control. 1 Actions for Gmail Gmail’s interface requires you to select or open a message before you can perform any action on it. That doesn’t sound like much of a hassle, but repeated over and over it can quickly eat away time better spent on more productive tasks. The simple Actions for Gmail extension lets you add up to four buttons – Archive, Delete, Mark As Spam, or Mark As Read/ Unread – next to each message in your inbox, so you can process it with…

It’s expected that we take care with most business writing, but we tend to fire off emails from the hip. Look no further than your own inbox for proof. It’s likely rife with rambling dispatches, egregious spelling errors, typos, and inappropriate emoticons. Subjecting a friend to these bad habits is one thing; making a bad impression on your boss or a client is another. Fortunately, there’s a number of tools that can help you clean up your act and write emails more effectively. Be sure to try these out before you hit send. Mail Mentor Business correspondence should be clear and concise. Cramming an email with painstaking details and words that the recipient may not understand doesn’t make you look smarter. It just gives them more opportunity to zone out…