Innehållsförteckning för May 2023 från Tech Advisor

If you’re interested in trying out the far future of Windows features – say, Windows 12? – the new Windows Insider ‘Canary’ channel may be right up your alley. Microsoft debuted the fourth new Windows Insider Channel earlier this month. ‘Canary’ joins the other Windows Insider channels as a way for you to try out new features before they arrive on Windows 11. Typically, the arrangement goes as follows: Release Preview is for code that’s just about to be released, while the Beta Channel is code that’s definitely scheduled, through a bit further out. The Dev Channel and the new Canary Channel are more experimental. Microsoft ‘relaunched’ the Dev Channel, with an eye toward enthusiasts who want to try out new code that may never see the light of day.…

While Microsoft continues to polish Bing Chat (for details, see our hands-on, on page 73) and Google preps its own AI chatbot, Bard, smaller alternative browsers Brave and Opera are making plans for AI, too. The two browser companies said that they will use AI to summarize articles, with Brave debuting the Summarizer in March. Microsoft’s latest beta version of Edge uses Bing’s AI-powered chatbot to summarize articles that it finds on the web, providing a concise explanation of their contents in the sidebar if asked. The Brave Summarizer is slightly different; instead, it uses its own AI-powered tools to examine a page of results and then summarize the findings. Brave provides its own search tools, and it is using the AI summation to replace the page-generated description with its…

Price: £1,105 from fave.co/3mSBqFf Sometimes all you need is a gigantic screen. Whether it’s to get a better look at a PowerPoint slide or blow up a dense Excel spreadsheet, it’s easier to get a lot of work done when you’ve got a larger canvas. In years past, that might have meant springing for a bulky 17-inch class laptop. Thanks to narrow bezels, Lenovo’s ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 has managed to cram a 16-inch display into a frame that would’ve housed a 15-inch just a few short years ago. With ultrabook thinness, plenty of ports, and a meaty Intel i7 chip, this business laptop is plenty productive even without external screens or desktop docks. FEATURES Our review unit has an Intel Core i7-1270P CPU, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of…

Price: £999 from fave.co/3ZQNvJR It’s happening. Mini-LED backlights, once reserved for monitors priced at £3,000 or more, have finally come to monitors with more palatable price tags. AOC’s Agon Pro AG274QZM is an example of this new breed. Though not inexpensive, it successfully ducks under £1,000 without compromising on HDR performance. FEATURES The AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM’s specifications are certain to appeal to gamers. It’s a 27-inch monitor with a native resolution of 2,560x1,440 and an IPS panel with Mini-LED backlight technology. It also has a refresh rate of 240Hz and supports Nvidia G-Sync. AOC packs in the latest connectivity. This includes two HDMI 2.1 ports and a USB-C 3.2 port with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 65 watts Power Delivery. The USB-C port connects to four additional USB-A ports. That’s…

Price: Free (built into Windows 10 and 11) The common perception is that paid security products from third parties must be more effective than any security built into an operating system like Windows. That may have been true in the past. But over the years, Microsoft has beefed up the security features that come with Windows. Beyond just basic antivirus protection, Windows 10 and 11 both include a healthy line-up of other tools designed to protect your PC, your files, and your online activity from malicious threats. FEATURES Known collectively as Windows Security, the built-in defences start with the Microsoft Defender antivirus tool. Defender automatically resides in memory to offer real-time protection against malware. But you can run a variety of on-demand scans, including a quick scan, a full scan,…

If you’re used to working with multiple computer monitors at your desk, traveling with a laptop can be tough. Suddenly, you’re back to the single-screen lifestyle, and on a cramped laptop display to boot. Fortunately, though, there’s a free way to use old iPads, Android tablets, or even other laptops as extra monitors for your Windows PC. The solution is a utility called Spacedesk. It may not be the only multi‑monitor software out there, but it’s the most versatile free option I’ve found so far. INSTALLING SPACEDESK FOR WINDOWS Spacedesk consists of two parts: • Spacedesk’s Driver software runs in the background on your PC and connects to your other screens. You can install it from the Spacedesk website: fave.co/3JpXhfc. Note that you’ll need to make a firewall exception for…

Every time there’s a shiny new version of Windows on the horizon, you’ll see them. A horde of stickers. A sea of stickers. A veritable galaxy of stickers on laptops and desktops all over shelves in digital and physical retailers, with ‘Windows XX upgrade available’ printed on them. And, without fail, actually securing that upgrade can be a bit of a headache. So, it is with some PCs sold with promised upgrades to Windows 11 which, it turns out, aren’t coming because the hardware can’t officially handle it. The company said as much on the latest update to the Known Issues section of the Windows 11 21H2 release health post, marked ‘resolved’ at the top of the issue list: “Some hardware ineligible Windows 10 and Windows 11, version 21H2 devices…

As we do every year, pandemic permitting, the staff at Tech Advisor descended on Barcelona with thousands more from the global tech community for 2023’s Mobile World Congress trade show. MWC usually serves up a plethora of new smartphones but there’s plenty more to see from the biggest technology companies. Though Samsung launched its Galaxy S23 series before the show this year there have been plenty of big launches from competing Android brands, announcements from others, and a whole load of new products to get our heads around. Here are the new products that stood out to us. 1. HONOR MAGIC VS Honor didn’t really reveal the Magic Vs at MWC this year. Its presentation focused on the more powerful, but less exciting Magic 5 Pro. But this is when…

Price: £1,249 from fave.co/3FnUYbl When the Galaxy S23 Ultra was announced, I said it showed Samsung doesn’t have to try anymore because the phone is so similar to the Galaxy S22 Ultra from 2022: see Tech Advisor May 2023. I stand by that. This phone looks and feels like the one that came before it in the range. But that doesn’t stop the newer S23 Ultra being one of the best phones ever made and one of the best phones you can buy. If you want a device with every conceivable smartphone feature crammed into a glass block you can (just about) fit in your pocket, then you probably don’t need to look any further. The best screen on a phone, a stylus, a 200Mp camera, and the latest in…

Price: £20.99 from fave.co/3LlYJS3 Keeper has always emphasized security, more than some other password managers. But in the past that sometimes came at the expense of things that consumers prize like ease-of-use and eye-catching aesthetics. Thankfully, Keeper has made some smart updates since the last time I reviewed it, including modernizing its interface, while strengthening its already impressive security features. Its pricing has also dropped to £20.99 for the Personal Plan and £50.39 for the Family Plan. Keeper’s guided multi-step set-up gets you up and running quickly. You’re first asked to import any passwords you have saved in your browser. Given the inherent risks of storing passwords this way, all users should happily oblige. You can also import passwords from 15 other popular password managers, including Dashlane (fave.co/3ZRLmxy) and LastPass…

Windows 11 may have switched to once-yearly major updates, but that doesn’t mean new features can’t show up more often. Case in point: on 14 March, Microsoft dropped a massive ‘quality update’ for Windows 11 that was brimming with fresh goodies. There’s a lot of new stuff that isn’t relevant to me, such as better AI tools on Qualcomm-powered PCs, tweaks to the native Teams chat experience, Facebook widgets, improved tablet behaviour, and so on. But there are several nifty features with a broader appeal that I can’t wait to try out – and you probably will too. Let’s dig in. 1. NOTEPAD TABS I’m a massive fan of Stardock’s Groupy software (£10.99 from fave.co/2VbeMHX) to turn every window into a tab, but it won’t be needed for much longer…

HP’s ‘dynamic security’ prevents you from using third-party ink with HP printers. While HP does this to ‘protect the quality of our customer experience’, being able to buy cheaper, non-HP ink can save you money. So how can you use third-party printer ink? We have a solution for at least some models. Unfortunately, HP’s dynamic security isn’t new. HP began the practice of banning unauthorized printer ink in 2016 with a firmware update that prevented third-party ink from being used. That hasn’t stopped consumers from being outraged that they can’t do what they want with printers they purchased, and buy whatever third-party ink cartridges they want to use. Earlier this month, the topic of HP dynamic security surfaced again when users on Reddit discovered (or re-discovered) the fact that HP…

Price: £1,749 from fave.co/401mt2J Samsung’s 2023 Galaxy Unpacked event was all about the Ultras, with the updated Galaxy S23 version joined by a brand-new Galaxy Book Ultra. But the latter was just one of four new laptops announced by Samsung, and the other three, cheaper options are likely to be more popular. They include the Galaxy Book3 Pro, a regular clamshell laptop available with either a 14-or 16-inch screen. None of these are touchscreens, and they don’t have the S Pen support we’ve come to associate with Galaxy Book range. And although I just said ‘cheaper’, the Book3 Pro isn’t exactly cheap. Is there enough here to justify the high price? The short answer to that is no, but it’s still excellent for everyday use, so don’t stop reading just…

Price: £1,099 from fave.co/3SR8klA After a name change and the reintroduction of a Pro model last year, it’s more of the same for Xiaomi at the start of 2023. At MWC in late February, the company launched two new flagships globally: the 13 and 13 Pro. An even more capable Ultra model is expected at some point, but Xiaomi has confirmed that there’ll be no half-step ‘S’ update later in the year. From testing the 13 Pro, it’s hard to imagine a non-gaming phone which could be more capable than this – perhaps only the Galaxy S23 Ultra. With Qualcomm’s latest silicon, a main camera equipped with a huge 1in sensor, and some of the fastest charging around, the device is almost unmatched when it comes to hardware. But familiar…

Price: Free with Microsoft Bing Bing’s new AI-powered chatbot is basically ChatGPT with ads… and one that refuses to do your homework for you. Well, sometimes. That’s not necessarily a derogatory criticism; the new Bing is pretty amazing. In your first few minutes with the new Bing chat interface, you’ll probably see even more sophistication than the free version of ChatGPT currently offers, with lengthy, detailed responses that can help you in many walks of life. But they may end with a jarring ad that looks (and probably is) ripped straight from Bing. That said, the fresh AI experience already work shockingly well more often than not. The new Bing experience is basically two parts. There’s the traditional search, with a list of search results and a new contextual interface…

AI is already here – and it’s not just services like ChatGPT, Bing, or the upcoming Google Bard. Developers have already infused AI into products you use every day, with further improvements to come. That’s a scary concept to some. AI can make ‘dumb’ devices smarter, but at the cost of knowing more about you and your daily lives. AI isn’t perfect, either – and our tolerance for its mistakes is evolving, just as the technology is. However, manufacturers across the board will continue to use AI in a bid to keep improving their products. Let’s throw some light on just where AI is already touching your daily life, and new services that can help you improve it further. 1. YOUR SMARTPHONE CAMERA’S PORTRAIT MODE Let’s start with one you…