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1 iPHONE 13 • From £679, apple.com Apple’s four new iPhones don’t look too new – we’re in the ‘hardware refresh’ point of the iPhone cycle rather than the ‘radical redesign’ bit, after all – but they’re absolutely some of the most exciting the company has ever released. From the dinky 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini all the way up to the big-boy 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro Max, with the 6.1-inch iPhones 13 and 13 Pro between them, the entire line has been given a bunch of salient upgrades. They each get new batteries with smarter power management, offering between 90 minutes to two-and-a-half hours extra life on a charge. Apple’s newest 5nm smartphone chip, the A15 Bionic, brings six CPU cores, between four and five GPU cores, and a vastly upgraded neural processor…

For decades, Intel’s relationship with chipmaking rivals such as AMD and Nvidia has been a feisty one, often seeking to exploit its domination at all costs. In 1999, for example, the company got into a tangle with the US Federal Trade Commission over how it was protecting technical information and patents. And a decade later, the European Commission found “abuse of dominance” as Intel paid retailers and computer manufacturers to only use Intel CPUs. So it’s perhaps a little unexpected that Intel is now suddenly singing Kumbaya and effectively saying to its rivals “can’t we all just get along?”. “We should have an open programming language… that can run on Intel, AMD and Nvidia GPUs without changing your code,” Intel CTO Greg Lavender told the business website Venturebeat, as he sought to promote…

What’s a “demonstrator” locomotive? Q I’m doing research on the Wisconsin Central, Wisconsin & Southern, and the Soo Line. Some photos I’ve found refer to the locomotives as “demonstrators.” What exactly is a demonstrator locomotive? Bob Vysinka, LaValle, Wis. A When a locomotive manufacturer like Electro-Motive Diesel or General Electric comes out with a new model, it will build a few “demonstrator” models. It will then send these locomotives to railroads for them to try out, in hopes the railroad’s managers will see the advantages of the new model and order some for their roster. Since the demonstrator locomotives don’t belong to the railroads, they’re painted in promotional schemes featuring the manufacturer’s name and logo instead of the railroad’s. The demonstrators usually make their tour of several railroads before being sold and repainted…

Five-star letter What is the obsession with rating everything to do with a purchase online nowadays? I’m very happy to leave a review of a product or service I have bought, especially as I benefit from reading reviews from others, but things seem to be getting out of control. I recently purchased some SSDs from a well-known retailer. In the eight days since receiving the drives I have received the following messages: from the delivery company to rate the delivery; from TrustPilot to rate the product; from TrustPilot to rate the retailer; from Revoo to rate the product; from Google Reviews to rate the retailer; another from Revoo because I didn’t rate the product after the first message a couple of days previously – apologies Revoo, it has been a really busy…

The saying “there’s nowt so queer as folk” has been rattling around my head these past weeks. In my job, this often means customers not fully understanding how their devices work, and it makes for some fascinating conversations. A great example of this comes from Steve. A regular customer, he rang to say he couldn’t get the internet on his iPad. Whenever possible, I always try to offer help over the phone before I book a visit, and my first piece of advice to Steve was to turn his router off and on. That in itself can be an interesting experience, as people rarely know what a router is. “It’s the box near your phone with some lights on it” usually does the trick, but Steve remained confused. He couldn’t find…

DIY devices 1 DEWALT 18V XR DCD795D2 There’s a reason tradespeople use DeWalt tools: they’re built tough and last forever. This particular drill driver is smaller than most, making it ideal for awkward or tight spaces, and 15 different torque levels enable it to drill or screw into all kinds of materials. DeWalt’s XR range uses the same batteries across multiple power tools. £123, diy.com 2 SOG POWERLOCK Like a Leatherman but for serious DIYers, the PowerLock is even recommended for explosives experts and soldiers in the field. SOG says its saws cut faster and its knives cut better than any rival, and its compound leverage makes use of multiple pivot points to amplify your hand strength. That means it’s twice as powerful as similar-looking but lesser multi-tools. £94.99, sogknives.co.uk 3 BOSCH CROSS LINE LASER QUIGO GREEN Putting…

I learnt to fly in 2007 and 15 years of amazing experiences all over the world followed. My original intention was to get around the mountains in New Zealand, and to really explore these remote and often untracked areas. I discovered that not only were the scenic views too much to absorb, but the air itself added a unique dimension. Because the weather in New Zealand is so often too windy to fly, I felt I needed to maximise my experience and understanding of the weather so I could get the most out of every day. After many years this led me to develop weather-forecasting skills, which came in handy for the famous Red Bull X-Alps. Following my debut in that race in 2015 I enrolled to become a meteorologist, and like…

1 SURROUND SOUND The latest addition to Sonos’ audio collection is a Dolby Atmos-enabled soundbar that will completely transform how your TV sounds, offering room-filling, surround sound without the need for dozens of separate speakers. Measuring 8.7x114.2x11.6cm it’s surprisingly slim, especially as it contains eight separate woofers and three tweeters all angled to fire sound forward, left/right and also up to the ceiling, to create an all-encompassing effect, especially when watching fast-paced films. Sonos Arc, £799, sonos.com 2 MADE TO MEASURE A stylish bowl – choose from a range of subtle colours and wood veneer – with a hugely practical secret; it has a built-in weigh scale and small LCD display that makes it easy to measure out your pet’s food. The stainless-steel bowl is removable and dishwasher safe, and there’s also a partner…

In a career spanning more than 25 years, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli has delighted audiences across the globe, performing in spectacular venues from the Pyramids to Rome’s Colosseum. This year, music fans are remembering one of his most memorable performances of all time. It’s the tenth anniversary of the show he put on for a Big Apple audience of 70,000, during which he was joined by stars including Celine Dion and Tony Bennett. And Andrea, who dedicated his performance to his beloved late father, is causing a stir once again with the release of his remastered album Concerto: One Night in Central Park , including previously unreleased tracks. His achievements are extraordinary by any standard, but all the more so given he has been blind since the age of 12. Along with his…

‘I arrived in America as an immigrant without a cent to her name who couldn't even spek the language’ Anastasia Soare recalls leaving her native Romania for the United States back in 1989, when her country was still behind the Iron Curtain. “I wasn’t allowed to take anything with me,” she says. “I asked if they would allow me to save just a dollar, to make a phone call if I needed help, but the authorities were relentless and I knew that if I persisted too much, I could end up in prison. “That’s how I arrived in America – an immigrant without a cent to her name who couldn’t even speak the language.” That was the start of an extraordinary journey that saw Anastasia become known as the Eyebrow Queen and find fame…

Valérie Messika grew up surrounded by diamonds, literally. Her father André is one of the world’s most important dealers, who travels far and wide searching out the finest stones for his clients. As far back as Valérie can remember, her home was full of diamonds. She played with diamonds, not dolls. “Yes,” she says, smiling. “I’ve always been around them. But it wasn’t until I was ten or so that I began to study them. It was like a game back then. My father showed me how to discover their qualities, the tiny flaws, the brilliance.” ‘Fear stifles imagination. I don’t have it — I was born bursting with creativity’ Her familiarity with the gems means she feels freer handling them than many jewellers, who are intimidated by their mystique. She says: “That fear stifles…

Chrome OS loses shine The same day I received my copy of PC Pro in which Tim Danton predicts great things for Chrome OS devices in 2022 (see issue 328, p34), I received a notification on my Dell Chromebook that I wouldn’t receive any OS updates, including security updates, after June 2022. Its year of manufacture is 2019. If all Chrome OS devices prove to be obsolete after about three years, no wonder they’ll sell more – unless buyers decide that a Windows or Mac device (about the same price as a decent Chromebook, it seems) will make longer-term sense. John Clifton Editor-in-chief Tim Danton replies: That’s a great point and something we will make a point of checking during reviews. The good news is that both Chromebooks we review this month…

Here at T3, when we talk about coffee makers, we generally mean espresso machines and bean-to-cup machines, because that’s what we generally get sent. Espresso, after all, is the most high-tech, expensive and sophisticated (or poncey, if you prefer) way to make coffee, and the results from the best machines are exceptional. It’s not by any means the only way to make coffee however – even the humble cafetiere and stovetop percolator can make a damn fine cup. And then there’s filter coffee makers such as this very fine specimen from Zwilling (£159, zwilling.com). Bearing the rather unimaginative name of Drip Coffee Maker, this vision in glass, LCD and plastique is part of the award-winning Enfinigy range. Yes, we know that sounds like a recently defunct electricity company; just go with…

By the time you read this, Black Friday should be upon us. Or it may be happening shortly, or it might have just have passed. It doesn’t make a great deal of difference, as you’ll also have the pre-Black Friday sales, the post-Black Friday sales, the pre-Christmas sales, Boxing Day sales and then the New Year sales to enjoy. Just last month, Amazon had its first ‘Early Access Sale’, AKA Prime Day 2. Soon, I predict, we will start having names for the increasingly rare days and weeks where there aren’t any sales going on. Taupe Wednesday, perhaps. Rich and ostentatious people could show off how wealthy they are by making all their purchases on Taupe Wednesday, the one day of the year when everything is full price, and you don’t…

Looking picture perfect in Palermo’s Royal Palace with her stunning silk wedding gown fanned out beside her, the new Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Noto strikes a regal pose on a day that brought Scottish aristocracy and European royalty together. Lady Charlotte Lindesay-Bethune, the daughter of a Scottish earl, has taken on the royal title after marrying Prince Jaime of Bourbon-Two-Sicilies, a cousin of Spain’s King Felipe VI. The couple wed at the 12thcentury Cathedral of Monreale in Sicily’s capital, watched by some 200 guests, including nobility from the Habsburg, Liechtenstein, Braganza, Orléans and Bulgarian dynasties, before moving on to the Royal Palace for the wedding breakfast. MARVELLOUS ARRIVAL The bride, in a beautiful ivory duchesse silk and lace detail gown by British designer Phillipa Lepley, arrived in a carriage pulled by four white horses,…

Well, my 16in MacBook Pro finally arrived. It was with trepidation that I unpacked it and got it ready to boot. Then I opened the lid and fell in love. The only word to use is “wow”. I accept that I ticked most of the boxes when it came to this purchase, going for the M1 Max processor, 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. That came in at around four grand, only for me to realise that I hadn’t paid for AppleCare (which I have on all my daily-use devices), so that upped the price even further. But one look at the screen was enough to wipe away all thoughts of that cost. It has blacks that are blacker than black. The peak white brightness on HDR content is eye…

‘Despite the times we’re all living through, I feel Blu came home with great peace and serenity’ Gianluca Back when Italian entrepreneur Gianluca Vacchi and his girlfriend Sharon Fonseca previously spoke to HELLO! , when she was three months pregnant with their first child together, Venezuelan model Sharon admitted: “The first ultrasound seemed to indicate that it was a boy, although Gian wanted a girl.” But to the couple’s surprise, and Gianluca’s delight, it turns out their firstborn was a girl after all. Posing here as a family in their beautiful Bologna home – complete with a hot-air balloon seat in their little daughter’s perfectly decorated pink nursery – the couple proudly present baby Blu Jerusalema for the first time since her arrival in October 2020. “Despite the times we’re all living through…

When you learn to fly, you are told it is dangerous to launch with the wind beyond 45 degrees off “straight up the slope”. Crosswinds cause turbulence. So why would you launch in a crosswind? In hike-and-fly, you often cannot reach a perfect launch slope. It might have taken hours to get to your chosen peak, and the weather might have changed. The forecast might be wrong. Or you just need to get off the mountain before the rain comes in. If you can do it safely, there’s no reason to restrict yourself to “perfect direction”. But it can be risky to ignore the dangers of the crosswind. So what to do? In this article I’ll show you how to keep yourself safe on a steep slope. Here are 10 steps to help…

Regular readers will know that I’m used to unravelling scams and have helped many people unpick their lives from fraudsters. We’ve dodged a few ourselves, but until recently, I’d never been nose to nose with someone trying to steal from our shop using technical trickery. I’d just finished lunch while enjoying the PC Pro podcast (live every Thursday at mixlr.com/pcpro). I was in the shop when two guys buzzed the door, looking for a new laptop. They didn’t know how lucky they were. Not only do we stock a modest selection of machines at popular prices, but I’ve recently passed the Microsoft Expertzone’s “Windows Accreditation 2021”, a toolkit on how to sell stuff, Redmond style. I am now drilled in the six goals for every customer interaction, the first being “Match goal with…

As I wrote last month, the starting point for my green home energy journey was an array of solar panels strapped to the roof of my house. I mentioned that my setup uses microinverters rather than a more conventional “string” inverter that takes a single input from all the solar panels wired together. Microinverters sit on the back of a single solar panel (or are sometimes shared between two; dual microinverters can be used to reduce costs, but they also reduce the benefits). They live on the roof, attached to the panel array, whereas a string inverter would be indoors, somewhere close to your electricity meter. Microinverters send 240V AC down off the roof, whereas a string-based setup will have a nice fat cable carrying a few hundred volts of DC. Compared…

New versions of Windows don’t come along all that often these days. Indeed, if you’d taken Microsoft at its word a few years ago, Windows 11 should never have arrived at all. But here we are, with a new version of Windows on the near horizon, with Windows 10 users set to qualify for a free upgrade to the new operating system. Before you hit that Upgrade button in Windows Update, however, you should take this once-in-a-computing-generation opportunity to get your PCs in order and ready to take full advantage of the new OS. First, however, it’s worth considering if you should – or can – upgrade to Windows 11. We’ll explore the pros and cons of upgrading a Windows 10 PC and dive into the detailed system requirements to help you…

If you watched Apple’s iPhone 14 announcement, you could be forgiven for thinking the firm wanted you to be afraid of, well, everything. We were told stories of people who experienced plane crashes, car wrecks and heart attacks and only survived thanks to their Apple devices. The point of this scaremongering? To show off new features such as crash detection, which will automatically contact the emergency services if your phone or watch detects fast motion and crash-like noises. But what are you supposed to do if you need emergency help and you’re in the wilderness or out of signal range? If you have an iPhone 14, the answer could be to look to the heavens and pray, as your phone sends an emergency message via the Globalstar satellite network. A new…

iPerf3 is one of those industry-standard tools for measuring network performance. You run it at each end of a connection and then fire it up to determine how quickly the data gets sent over the wire (or Wi-Fi). It’s been around a while and is very much a known quantity. The app is usually controlled from a command line, which gives a good indication of how hair-shirt it really is, but the core technology is available on just about every computing platform out there. Some developers have wrapped a graphical user interface around the core code to make it more friendly, but being a keyboard warrior, the command line with its endless switches and options is The One True Way. Well, most of the time. I use Magic iPerf on Android, which…

Believe it or not, Google cares about Android tablets again. After years of treading water, and effectively ceding the space to Apple’s iPad, the company has announced a new version of Android 12 (dubbed 12L), which will be specifically optimised for making the most of Android on large-format devices. In a blog post detailing the new features of the OS, Google promised a range of tools, guidance and APIs to help developers build apps for the new OS. And it showed off a range of new user-interface tweaks, such as iPad-style split screen multitasking, and new user interface components that respond to context. This means if, for example, you have a list of emails displayed on a phone-sized screen, you may only see the sender and subject lines. But if the…

Two new sports class paragliding competition series have been launched for 2023, taking advantage of the new breed of two-line EN-C paragliders which are coming our way. The Sports-Class Racing Series (SRS) is being organised by British competition organiser Brett Janaway using the Airtribune competition platform, while the Paragliding Grand Prix is organised by Polish pilot Przemysław Czerwiński. Both competition series have adopted a similar concept, offering EN-B+ and EN-C pilots the chance to compete throughout 2023 in a series of European competitions. Both series have said they are trialling the concept for 2023 and might expand beyond Europe if things go well. Sports-Class Racing Series (SRS) “The idea for a sports-class racing series has been around for years, but it feels particularly timely with the birth of the two-line EN-C,” organiser Brett…

Recently, I went to see my parents, who are old. No word of a lie, at one point they spent 10 minutes trying to locate my mum’s iPhone using ‘Find my iPhone’ on her iPad. A lot of consternation ensued, as Apple’s clever app showed that the iPhone appeared to be on the move. Had the dog swallowed it? Was it being borne about the house by a family of mischievous mice? No: the phone turned out to be in my mum’s pocket. How we chortled. This reminded me of an event on the way home from my last visit to the ’rents, last year. This also involved one of Apple’s clever apps, and it very much did not make me chortle. My partner and I were driving home. Well, he…

Windows 11 has crashed into view and it’s a critical moment in the history of computing. Will it be inducted into the “Windows Hall of Fame” to join 3.1, XP and 7 or exposed in the tabloid “Hall of Shame” with ME, 8 and RT? As a retailer, a new OS can be a delight. It drives sales as the public use the release as a justification to thrash the plastic and treat themselves to something shiny with a warranty. As a system builder, a new OS can drive me insane. When customers take delivery of a machine loaded with the latest OS, there’s an unspoken expectation that it should be faster than their old PC. If I delve back into the archives of our business, this hasn’t always been easy to…

‘The house makes us feel as if it’s looking after us, and when guests come to stay they describe it as a sanctuary’ She is the epitome of glamour, looking sensational as she invites HELLO! to her charming Cotswolds home for this exclusive photoshoot. You would never guess that Emma Samms – who became one of the most famous faces on TV in the dazzling hit 1980s drama Dynasty – has been suffering from long Covid. Now the actress, 60, who developed the debilitating condition after contracting Covid-19 last March, is reuniting the cast of the cult series to raise funds for the Southmead Hospital Charity, to help thousands of people who, like her, are struggling with the effects of long Covid. She has organised an interactive virtual Dynasty event with co-stars such…

Since 1990, Sky has been one of the biggest names in British broadcasting. Sky boxes can be found under TVs in 12 million homes around the country, offering viewers access to dozens of TV channels delivered via satellite. Which is why last October it made a change that was both dramatic, yet strangely unsurprising: Sky is ditching the dish. With Sky Glass, the company launched its first ever television. But instead of plugging into a satellite receiver on the subscriber’s roof, all content will be delivered to the new TV via streaming – including traditional linear channels. (A Freeview receiver is provided for backup only.) Whether this marks the end of the dish entirely remains to be seen, but it’s yet another sign that the writing is on the wall for traditional…

TED BAKER REVERSIBLE BELT Black? Brown? Can’t choose? This 100% bovine leather belt is the solution with black on one side and dark brown on the reverse. Both sides are high-shine while the brushed dark silver buckle features a Ted Baker logo. £40, mainlinemenswear.co.uk PAUL SMITH OLIVE JACKET While this shirt jacket is a bit of an investment its classic cut works with both a casual and a tailored look so it will earn its keep over the years. Dark green suede is embellished with logo-engraved snap fastenings. £1,500, paulsmith.com CAMPERLAB DERBY SHOES Smart doesn’t mean a compromise on style. These black 1978 Derby shoes balance a classic aesthetic with contemporary charm featuring a squared-toe and block heel. The rubber sole is topped with leather upper and Derby lacing system. £255, matchesfashion.com TOM FORD SILK TIE Ease the pain of…

‘It’s the person behind the actor who I fell in love with, who I’m still in love with and who I know, every day, I want to share my life with’ Hollywood star Antonio Banderas adores his home city of Malaga in Andalusia – and his property there is a true reflection of that passion. As the A-list actor’s partner of six years Nicole Kimpel says in our exclusive photoshoot: “This place is Malaga; it’s located in the heart of the city and the city has taken it over. The architecture has some of the typical Arabic elements found here in Andalusia, there are local decorative elements and artists’ works, even some lines from Malagan poet Manuel Alcántara.” You can see the whole city laid out from the terrace of the penthouse, its…

‘The world of Aynhoe enables the children to believe the unbelievable’ Stepping through the doors of Aynhoe Park with its treasure trove of artefacts is like entering a museum or fantasy land. However, this magnificent 17th-century house in Oxfordshire is also a much-loved family home to James and Sophie Perkins, where they have raised their three children Beau, 13, Lyon, eight, and five-year-old Luna, and welcomed many of their celebrity friends. Now, after 15 years, the family are planning to move and, to mark the end of an era, are selling off many of their cherished possessions. “Aynhoe Park is furnished with a collection of iconic objects and curiosities from our travels across the globe,” says James, 50, who has lovingly restored the property with his wife since they bought it in 2006.…

‘There’s something so unpretentious about Anne’s home, which chimes perfectly with her’ Along with the rest of the country, the royal family have been spending much of their time at home, carrying out many of their duties virtually and giving us tantalising glimpses of their houses at the same time. Last week, we saw pictures of the Princess Royal relaxing at Gatcombe Park with her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, as the couple enjoyed watching rugby on TV from their sofa. Not only did it give us an insight into how Princess Anne spends her leisure time, but also showed her obvious penchant for statuettes, trinkets and photos. We saw pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s sitting room at Kensington Palace when then US President Barack Obama and First Lady…

Britain needs a “New National Purpose”, argued former Prime Minister Tony Blair in a new report published by his Institute for Global Change. Co-authored with his erstwhile rival from across the despatch box, former Conservative Party leader William Hague, the report called for Britain to implement a wide range of science and technology proposals in order to create a “strategic state”. One idea sticks out above all: a renewed call for the government to create a “digital identity” system to better manage the relationship between citizens and the state. The report recommends that Britain take inspiration from countries such as Estonia and develop a system of legally recognised digital IDs. It further suggests a law be passed to codify the “only once” principle in how the government handles our data – the…

My biggest goal in a season is to clock up as many hours in the air as possible. In a good year I can manage around 800 hours; in 2022 I was at almost 900. There is only one way to spend that amount of time in the air: you always need to be at the best flying spot possible. Chamonix in January/February If you want to log flights in winter in Europe there is no better place than Chamonix. The weather is usually fairly nice and Chamonix is protected from windy days due to the huge mountains surrounding the narrow valley, which makes it pretty reliable. Add to that the winter landing is just a three-minute walk from the cable car and the daily paragliding ticket is around €20 and you…

The ongoing rollercoaster that is Twitter’s communications has consistently gained headlines since Mr Musk took over. However, this month Twitter managed to outdo itself. In fairness, what it said was correct, but as we know many people don’t tend to read notifications correctly. The background is the use of 2FA, or two factor authentication. This is super important stuff, because it adds a significant additional layer of authentication protection. Let’s take a good example of how this works, and how it relates to Twitter. It’s usual to set up an account on a service using an email address and a password. Companies are getting somewhat better at enforcing strong and complex passwords, and this helps if a bad actor is trying to break into your account by guessing likely passwords. Dictionary attacks…

Interior designer Marie Astrid looked the picture of happiness It was a distinctly cosmopolitan occasion when a host of European royals gathered in Tuscany to celebrate the marriage of Princess Marie Astrid of Liechtenstein and US oil heir Ralph “Rafe” Worthington. Merely weeks after the bride’s sister Princess Maria Anunciata married businessman Emanuele Musini in Vienna, in what was considered one of the biggest society events of the year, the couple walked down the aisle at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Orbetello, watched by 250 family and friends. Interior designer Marie Astrid, 34, looked the picture of happiness in an embroidered V-neck ivory gown by Italian designer Marta Ferri. Ticking the “something borrowed” box, she held back her veil with the family’s dazzling, 19th-century Kinsky Honeysuckle tiara, a diamond, silver and gold…

FOR MORE ENERGY-SAVING IDEAS, TURN TO OUR GUIDE ON P36 I hope you found last month’s look at home and office energy saving useful. I’m going to conclude the two-parter this month by looking at some practical measures you can take to reduce your energy consumption, saving both the planet and your bank balance. Let’s start with switching things off at certain times. You might remember that last month I suggested you pretty much ignore all the advice out there about unplugging phone chargers when not in use, and not leaving TVs in standby – you just don’t need to do this with modern kit. Remember the “does it get warm?” test. But there might well be things in your home or office where it does make sense to power them down when…

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.” So begins The War Of The Worlds by HG Wells, and while some IBM executives of the late 1970s may have taken offence at this comparison – the world being watched was the explosive growth of personal computers, the eyes behind the microscope belonging to IBM – there is a ring of truth to this parallel. The main difference…

1 SONY ALPHA 7R V • £4,000, sony.co.uk It’s time to make two bold and controversial statements. One, the quality of Sony’s recent camera output now places it directly next to Canon and Nikon in pro cameras’ upper tier. Two: the DSLR is dead. Mirrorless sensors open up new possibilities, and manufacturers are only now scratching the surface of what’s possible. Right now, the Alpha 7R V is utterly remarkable for its AI subject detection engine, which utilises deep learning to pull off what Sony calls ‘next-generation autofocus’, able to not only accurately pick out subjects in frame but to analyse their pose to ensure the 7R V never locks onto a foreground finger. Five years down the line? The entire mirrorless market will be brainier than your cat. The Alpha 7R V also…

Q TOM SMITH, MILTON Is my home Wi-Fi network safe? A Safe how, exactly? Safe in terms of nefarious radio waves that might get through your tin foil helmet? Gosh, reader, let’s look at the wealth of evidence on your lunatic auntie’s Facebook wall, certainly looks like an open and shut case, doesn’t it? Get out of here. Safe in terms of your skeezy neighbour finagling their laptop onto your connection and downloading something dodgy? Modern wireless security is not the easily smashed excuse for a protocol that ‘protected’ early WEP networks. Nobody’s getting through WPA2 without serious tools and a fair amount of laziness on your part: as long as your password doesn’t appear in any known hacks and him next door isn’t able to read the matrix you’ll probably be alright. Safe…

It all started with an email from a reader. “Have you seen these Coda 1.1 laptops being advertised on TikTok and Facebook?” asked Michael Albin. “These are Windows 10 laptops with a Celeron processor and 11in screen. I found them on eBay, brand new for £64 including delivery.” The gist of Michael’s email was simple: how would such cheap laptops fare when put through the PC Pro tests? He had taken the bait and been suitably impressed. “It isn’t the fastest in the world, but it is a very functional little laptop that runs everything I then tried on it.” Nor was the Coda 1.1 alone. There were plenty of TikTok videos showing off sub-£100 laptops that appeared to do everyday jobs without any issue. Why pay more? REAL-WORLD TROUBLES It turns out that…

Over the past few years, countless millions of words have been written about augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). For a time, it seemed that the technologies could be about to change the world, with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg seemingly going all in, renaming his company Meta after the so-called Metaverse, and launching a mixed reality (MR) headset aimed at businesses. More recently, it has felt more like a VR winter as Silicon Valley abandoned its grand plans. Microsoft, which launched its own pioneering HoloLens headset, has apparently laid off several of the teams working on it, and in March Google finally killed Google Glass, the company’s early attempt at getting into mixed reality. Even Meta is thought to be quietly backing away from the Metaverse, instead putting its more…

Damaged goods I decided it was time to replace my 2013 iMac with its M1 grandchild. We are all aware of global warming and I am a fully paid-up advocate of recycling, so I offered the computer for sale at one of the well-known resellers of used equipment. The price offered for my good-condition iMac wasn’t generous, but enough for me to say yes to the deal. I didn’t see the red flag, but I should have done. I’ve read the book, seen the film and its sequels, and I have the T-shirt in many shades. The reseller simply instructed me to click on a link to book its chosen courier. The next instruction was to “Pack your items into ANY box”. This is such a simple but dangerously loaded phrase. It did…

Luc Armant’s vexation was subtle, but perceptible. Sitting forward, staring at me intently, then leaning back in his office chair, patiently awaiting my response, I felt like Luc was evaluating me, my questions, and where they might be leading. It was clear early on that Luc’s slightly reserved demeanour was a function of his busy mind. “What is the experience like? What do you feel?” I finally asked. “It’s quiet,” he replied, contemplatively. “Drag, you know, makes noise.” Nearing the end of his workday, he was kind enough to entertain my questions on his years-long project: Ozone’s Submarine harness. The production version was released as I wrote this. It’s been on Luc’s mind for some time, since at least 2006, before he even worked at Ozone. Thinking back to engineering school, Luc’s response…

‘It would be nice to meet someone, but I have a lot on my plate. Marriage is not on my radar’ Strolling along a palm-fringed tropical beach, Good Morning Britain presenter Ranvir Singh basks in the sun on a well-earned break with her eight-year-old son Tushaan. This idyllic scene is a treasured reminder of the unforgettable holiday the pair experienced at the Carlisle Bay Antigua late last year. Now, as the GMB political editor remains in lockdown with the rest of the country, she shares memories of that special break exclusively with HELLO! . “Tushaan and I were so fortunate to get away, just the two of us,” says 43-year-old Ranvir in her first in-depth interview since stunning viewers with her routines on Strictly Come Dancing last year, becoming one of the show’s…

We’re midway through the GH cover shoot and Joanna Lumley is explaining how she colours her own hair at home. ‘If it looks all right after one pack, then great. If not, I’ll get some lighter dye from the supermarket and paint that on top. It’s very easy,’ she shrugs. It’s a titbit that reveals a lot about Joanna. Despite a sparkling career that’s seen her become a BAFTA Award winner, a comedy legend and a dame, there is nothing grand about her. ‘I don’t want anybody to ever feel that they have to address me as Dame Joanna,’ she says of the honour she received last year. At 76, Joanna says life is all about living on her toes. She has recently toured the Banda Islands, Zanzibar and Madagascar for a…

Broken laptops are piling up in recycling centres. Cracked displays are shovelled into landfill sites. Don’t even ask about the mountain of white goods that we throw away each year. Britain generates 1.45 million tons of electrical waste every year, according to Material Focus, so it’s perhaps just as well that a new law has come into force designed to encourage us to repair broken tech and not just throw it onto the scrapheap. “Under the new law, manufacturers of certain categories of products will have to make spare parts and repair information available for at least seven to ten years after a product is retired from the market,” said Ugo Vallauri, co-founder of The Restart Project, a London-based social enterprise that campaigns against what it calls the “throwaway, consumerist model of…

Weren’t things better in the old days? Back then, the worst thing you could do with a computer was type 10 Print “WILLIES” 20 Goto 10. The music was better too. All this modern music, it’s just noise isn’t it? When this spirit of wistful nostalgia takes me, I like to revert to the simple pleasures of analogue technology. Making coffee with a manual espresso machine. Listening to ‘vinyls’ on my ‘vinyl turntable’. Screwing things into concrete walls using my hands. And dispatching small children up the chimney to clean it. Okay, I don’t really do the last two; you got me. So, this month, Gaggia kindly sent me their Classic coffee maker. You can read several insightful sentences about it on page 22. This beautifully retro machine looks like it would…

Changing core infrastructure is always hard, always fraught with complications and always littered with unexpected roadblocks. That’s why we do it so infrequently, and usually after an appropriate period of consideration, testing and verification. Transitioning a large network is something that must be done over a period of time, so coexistence is always a critical factor because there is never one homogenous solution in place. After about six years of hard use, it was necessary to look again at our core network switching, firewalls and Wi-Fi access points. The solution I put in place back then was from Cisco Meraki, a cloud-based user-friendly platform that can scale to global enterprises. One benefit is that it doesn’t drag you into the deep dark hole that is the Cisco command line. It’s worked well…

DATABASE REVEALS OVER 200K PEOPLE INVOLVED IN POSTING FAKE REVIEWS ON AMAZON I actually reported some sellers attempting to buy my good review directly to Amazon. Amazon was extremely slow in actually being able to take down the vendors. The process was so painful, in fact, that I probably would never bother to do it again. I’m sure those same vendors are back up on Amazon as some other name, as Amazon does zero vetting of marketplace vendors. Amazon has serious issues with credibility and many of the Chinese vendors on their platform are very underhanded and don’t follow the Amazon Marketplace rules at all. I stopped reading anything other than the bad reviews, really. I do check the questions from time to time … but I never read the good…

This month I’m concentrating on one of the many pieces of reader feedback that reach me across multiple platforms. One of those platforms, ironically, being Gmail. I say ironically as the reader in question wanted to know my opinion on just how secure the service was for personal use. Addressing that security question is easy: it’s as secure as the steps you take to secure your Google account, and your awareness of incoming risk, allow. The secondary question, which was how private it is, is somewhat more complicated and I’ll come to that momentarily. For most people, Google account security comes down to two things. First, ensure you have a unique and strong password. As I always say at this point, a password manager is your friend here, both in creating that…

‘I’m obsessed with Bridgerton. I watched it twice’ Sarah, Duchess of York It’s the costume drama that has become a global phenomenon and had us gripped from the outset with its romantic storylines, whimsical humour, gorgeous frocks, beautiful interiors and steamy love scenes. Among viewers in the estimated 63 million households around the world who streamed Bridgerton in its first four weeks on Netflix was Sarah, Duchess of York, who said recently that, along with the rest of us, she was “obsessed” with season one of the show. “I adored Bridgerton so much that I watched it twice, deliberately. I’m obsessed with it,” she told Us Weekly. And Sarah plans to ask Bridgerton’s producer, Shonda Rhimes, to adapt her upcoming Mills & Boon novel, Her Heart for a Compass, into a TV series. Based on…

Situated between North Africa and Sicily, the Mediterranean island Malta afforded Allied forces based there during World War II strategic advantage for disrupting Axis supply routes. Because of this the Italian and German forces consistently attacked Malta by air and sea. With an invasion of Malta expected, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted the garrison reinforced with tanks. In October 1940, two Light Tank Mk.VIBs built by Vickers-Armstrongs and four Matilda infantry tanks were deployed to Malta as a morale booster. Fortunately, the invasion never came, and by 1943, with Allied gains in the Mediterranean and the invasion of Sicily, Malta was no longer under threat. Malta’s limestone walls and buildings inspired the unique camouflage applied to vehicles stationed there. The pattern was not used anywhere else and also found itself used…

SCORE PRICE Barebones (i7-1260P), £497 (£596 inc VAT) from uk.insight.com When Intel released the NUC 11 Pro (see issue 322, p54) with an 11th generation mobile Core processor inside, we weren’t blown away by its speed. We pointed to mini PC rivals based on faster AMD Ryzen chips, plus the larger but far more powerful M1 Mac mini (see issue 318, p54). But with the 12th generation Core, Intel regained its mojo – and this makes the NUC 12 Pro a far more attractive proposition. It still offers all the usual benefits of Intel’s “next unit of computing” Pro design. First, its sheer compactness. Thanks to its 117 x 112mm footprint, you could squeeze almost four of these machines onto this page, and at 33.4mm tall I’ve seen thicker gaming laptops. Support for…

There’s a good case to be made that the world’s greatest—and strangest—audiophile culture resides in Japan. Probably the most important notion the Japanese have introduced to our hobby is that home audio isn’t merely a way of heightening the musical art of others but can be an art in itself. This idea’s most flamboyant embodiment was the poet, journalist, chef, and amplifier builder Susumu Sakuma, better known as Sakuma-san. After having built many amplifiers as a young man, Sakumasan experienced an epiphany: Amplifiers that measured well often failed to make him feel deeply. He soon discovered that, for him, the most emotional sound came from mono systems powered by transformer-coupled amplifiers that used directly heated triode tubes. In 1968, somewhat improbably, Sakuma-san opened a restaurant in the quaint seaside town of Tateyama. The…