Innehållsförteckning för Xmas 2019 från TechLife

ONE OF THE most comforting things about learning the details of your origin is knowing where it places you against the tapestry of a wider history. It helps you feel like you’re a part of something bigger, and offers a sense of place and even time. In such a busy, tech-filled world, knowing where you come from and how you fit in can be oddly centering. It is also, now, easier than ever before to start learning. Which is – handily – at the center of this issue. We offer up free tools to track all the information you might uncover on your family history journey, and we show you were to look online. Once upon a time, tracking down family histories required some epic leg- and paper-work, but with…

SONY MAY ALREADY BE CONSIDERING THE PLAYSTATION 10 BEFORE THE PS5 EVEN LAUNCHES. We may be eagerly anticipating the next-generation PS5 console but it seems Sony’s looking even further afield, with plans – or at least the names – for consoles right up to the PS10. Sony has filed trademarks for PS6, PS7, PS8, PS9, and PS10 in Japan. So, rest assured, the PS5 will certainly not be the last PlayStation console. NSW DRIVER’S LICENCES ARE NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUR PHONE SERVICE NSW APP CAN REPLACE YOUR PHYSICAL ID. Announced three years ago and officially put into motion back in May this year (followed by an unfortunate missed deadline in August) digital driver’s licences are finally available in NSW. In order to access your driver’s licence on your phone, you’ll…

Google is building a new ad-blocker for Chrome that will specifically target ads that use too many system resources. Chrome is notoriously RAM-hungry, which can result in sluggish performance, but the blame doesn’t lie entirely with the browser – sometimes ads can be responsible for sites slowing to a crawl. As 9to5Google explains, Chrome’s developers are working on a tool that will address this problem by not loading ‘heavy ads’ that put excessive demands on the user’s device. The tool was first mentioned in a message from a Chromium developer, and Google has now published a short guide explaining it further, and defining exactly what is meant by ‘heavy’. According to the guide, ads will be blocked if they use the main processor thread for more than 60 seconds in…

THE LATEST VERSION of multimedia streaming software Audials One makes some welcome improvements on previous releases, with just a few quirks remaining from the 2019 version. If you’re not familiar with the name, Audials One is essentially a one-stop shop for all your music, TV and movie streaming needs. You can use it to stream from Apple Music, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify, and almost any other service you can think of, all through a single interface. It’s fantastically convenient, and makes finding songs, shows and movies far easier than using a separate app for each service; we almost never review software in TechLife, but this app is so good it’s worth sharing. RADIO AND RECORDING It’s not all about streaming services, though; Audials One also recreates the time-honored tradition…

VR SEEMS TO have given up its quest of changing the world this month, with researchers at Microsoft and Google striving to create virtual worlds as close as possible to our existing physical one. Any Iron Man fans reading this will be pleased to know you might get your very own EDITH smart sunglasses in the not too distant future. Apart from this, AR also seems to be introducing live digital organ models for surgeons, free parking space mapping and powersuits for spinal injury patients. Architects are at risk of obsolescence as AI shows it’s awesome at adaptive internal floor sketches, and the machines also get a bit ‘handsy’ as the first AI robot hand shows it can solve a Rubik’s Cube. AUGMENTED REALITY YouTube hardware hacker makes Ironman AR…

King of Fighters: All Star THE KING OF COMBOS. Free with IAP FIGHTING GAMES HAVE been somewhat of a mixed bag on mobile. Some titles have attempted to map actions to swipes or taps, while others have used on screen controls, with both options failing to match the precision of a physical controller. SNK, developers of the extraordinarily popular King of Fighters series, has decided to forgo creating a traditional fighting game, instead introducing its wide character roster into a mission-based beat-em-up. As a result, punches, kicks and combos have been separated into on-screen buttons – like mobile MOBAs, there’s a button for a standard attack, with combo specials on cooldown timers. Matching up your cooldowns and stringing the right moves and attacks together with your placement is key, with…

Redon and a small group founded the non-profit in 2011, and most of the money spent to acquire and archive the games comes from its members. Each game component is carefully stored separately. Glossy paper covers are flattened in protective portfolios. Manuals and disks are stored separately, in special envelopes that won’t damage the paper. It’s all meticulously catalogued in a temperature-controlled archive, with a digital database full of information on every game. Most of that information isn’t available online, yet, but a public database is in the works. Visit GamePres.org for more.…

THERE AREN’T ANY 4K OLED panels for 17.3-inch laptops this year… so unlike its smaller sibling the Aero 17 has to settle for either a 4K IPS panel from AUO or a 144Hz FHD IPS screen from LG. Considering the 4K display can reproduce 100% Adobe RGB colours and that both the Aero 17’s screen offerings come with a Pantone XRite certified colour scheme, it’s not exactly much of a sacrifice, even for colour-conscious creatives. The higher-res version even carries a new VESA HDR 400 certification, which means it is capable of reproducing a larger range of colours than regular SDR monitors at a peak brightness of 400 nits. The range starts with the entry Aero 17 SA which comes with the FHD screen, an Intel Core i7-9750H CPU, 8GB…

AFTER OVER THREE years on the market, HTC Vive is finally ready to retire its original VR headset, the HTC Vive, and replace it with a new model. In many ways, the HTC Vive Cosmos is a big leap forward from the original headset. But in other ways, it feels like a step in the wrong direction. The Cosmos seems full of potential. It has great displays, is well-built with nice speakers that produce clear, loud audio, and the inside-out tracking system removes a handful of pain points that have stopped many from investing in VR – namely base stations. But the Cosmos also has a few glaring problems. It’s more expensive ($1,299) and less comfortable than the original Vive. I also have critiques on the controllers, and the platform…

THE LINK BAR is as typical a sound bar as you’ll get, visually speaking: It’s neutral in just about every respect, save for the unusually long form factor. It’s about 101cm wide, which is considerably longer than the Sonos Beam at 75cm. At under 8cm high, it’s fairly short, and could nestle under a TV, but JBL includes brackets to mount it on a wall if that’s more your speed. On the back are several connectivity options, including three HDMI inputs, plus optical, Aux-In and Ethernet ports. The HDMI ARC port is the most important because it pulls in the audio signal from the TV, while sending the video signal back the other way. JBL didn’t include support for Dolby Vision or DTS:X, nor enabled a method with which to…

PLANTRONICS IS RESPONSIBLE for producing the headset used by the first astronauts on the moon, and now some 50 years later the company has finally brought its prestige in voice communication to the true wireless realm. The BackBeat Pro 5100 are incredibly compact and lightweight, as is their charging case, which manage to pack 6.5 and 13 hours of battery life respectively, although unfortunately the latter connects via a dated microUSB port. The audio quality coming from these little earbuds belies their size, offering excellent clarity and a well-rounded frequency response out of the box. Upon connecting them with the BackBeat app, you’ll notice a wealth of features, including Find My Headset and the ability to configure its (rather finicky) touch and click controls to launch playlists, start a stopwatch,…

THERE ARE MANY excellent family history programs out there for recording your family history, but for the purposes of this feature we’re choosing a free option – RootsMagic Essentials – that allows you to download and merge records from the internet. Head over to www.rootsmagic. com/Essentials where you’ll find a download link. The free version has all the core functionality you need – you can always upgrade for US$29.95 if you need the extra features. Once downloaded, install the program – untick the Place Database option when prompted (it’s for paid users only). After launching the program for the first time, choose the free version when prompted, close the ‘News and Updates’ box and then opt to create a new file. Give it a suitable name and choose where to…

YOU’VE RECORDED WHAT you know about your family, but where do you go to track down missing information as well as the names of ancestors from further back in your tree? First, you’d be surprised what records exist – not just birth, marriage and death records, but all kinds of records to flesh out hitherto anonymous ancestors with a rich seam of detail about their lives. The days of hunting through dusty records in far-flung archives and parish churches for these records is long gone too, with ever-increasing numbers being digitised and made available online. And thanks to volunteer efforts like the Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes coupled with the global FamilySearch website, many records are now completely free. SIGN UP WITH FAMILYSEARCH You’ll need to register with FamilySearch to…

“The best way to deal with your own photos and documents is with the help of a flatbed scanner” ONE OF THE most satisfying aspects of family history is reconnecting to your past through photographs, certificates and other interesting memorabilia, covering everything from personal biographies to boxing medals. Not of all of these items will currently be in your possession, and in fact you’re extremely likely to be unaware of how much still exists out there somewhere (don’t worry, we show you how to track it down over the page). But whether or not you own the physical copies of these family mementos, it’s a good idea to digitise it – not just for archival purposes, but to illustrate your research and share with others. SCAN YOUR MATERIAL The best…

The internet is packed full of free genealogy records – if you know where to look. FamilySearch is obviously a rich and diverse source on its own, but there are plenty of other websites with specialised information too. Did your ancestor leave a will? Many wealthier ones did and you can browse the index for free at www.gov.uk/search-will-probate where you’ll find a surprising amount of detail (including the date and place of death, next of kin and value of their estate). This is assuming you’re of UK descent, but many other countries offer similar services. If you can track down a likely place of burial, then search www.findagrave. com and www.billiongraves.com to see if the headstone has been photographed and transcribed by an army of volunteers. And if your ancestors…

If you want the convenience of cloud storage – the ability to keep data synced between multiple computers and accessible via mobile devices, for example – but don’t want to store it on the web, look to invest in a hardware solution in the form of a network hard drive, also known as a NAS (Network Attached Storage). More powerful solutions offer a built-in personal cloud solution where the central copy is stored on the drive itself. If you’re particularly concerned about security, you can restrict access so only devices directly connected to your local network have access. Most NAS manufacturers offer their own proprietary solutions – My Cloud for Western Digital, for example. This is adequate for most people, but if you want want a non-proprietary solution, you should…

Back-up tools like Paragon and File History employ clever techniques to help keep the size of your backup to a minimum as new changes are recorded. After a single full backup is taken, Paragon offers two types: differential, which record the changes made since the last full backup was taken; and – better still – incremental, which only records those changes made since the last incremental backup was taken, helping keep the size of your backup down even further. If offered a choice between the two, choose incremental to maximise free space; if free space isn’t a problem, differential backups are quicker to restore from.…

01 VERIFY PARTITION Open the free AOMEI Partition Assistant app, right-click the C drive and choose Advanced > Check Partition. Perform a simple partition check – if errors are found, click Yes and wait while your PC reboots and the Disk Check tool attempts repairs. If necessary, re-run the check until no errors are found. 02 SHRINK YOUR C DRIVE Select drive C again, only this time choose Resize/Move Partition under Partition Operations instead. Use the slider to reduce drive C’s size to leave sufficient space for your data partition – as a rule, leave a minimum of 10GB free on drive C for future programs and apps to occupy – then click OK. 03 CREATE A PARTITION Finally, select the unallocated space and click Create Partition. Check that NTFS…

[HARDWARE] Laptop screen problems I have an HP 15-ac152sa laptop that I purchased in 2015. I switched it on recently, and the display showed some kind of tearing effect. Is it worthwhile getting a replacement screen, or can you advise me on a similar model or two-in-one model to replace it? MARANDA GREENIDGE This might be anything from a loose cable to a failed screen. If you felt brave enough you could try and track down a service manual, then follow the disassembly instructions to see if the problem is as simple as reconnecting (or replacing) the ribbon-like cable that connects the display to the motherboard. If the screen was faulty, a replacement would cost you around $100 including delivery from a screen parts specialist — this assumes you can…

YOUR IPHONE MAKES many tasks easier, whether that’s planning a route, recording workouts, managing your calendar, or something else entirely. But some tasks are naturally repetitive, and so best done with tools like Launch Center Pro and Shortcuts. Contrast’s Launch Center Pro was updated to version 3 at the end of 2018. It shows you a grid of large tiles – tap one and it begins your assigned action. There are many iOS apps that work with this; compatibility requires apps to provide a ‘URL scheme’ – but don’t worry, as Launch Center Pro abstracts this for ease. Version 3 can scan for NFC stickers (from about US$5 incl postage, shop.contrast.co). This works best with an iPhone XS, XS Max or XR, which can detect them while the display is…

Duo Charging Case DUO WILL KEEP YOUR JUUL CHARGED AT ALL TIMES FOR UNERUPTED VAPING. US $162 | producthype.co/duo-charging-case/ There’s a special breed of smartphone case that tries to integrate the thing that you think you like the most and combine it with the thing you actually like the most (your smartphone), in one neat package. There are some pretty batty ideas out there, including an espresso maker smartphone case, but if you are a nicotine-addicted millennial that believes cancer will be cured before you get it, then all you’ve ever wanted is a smartphone case that keeps your Juul juiced. Duo is a new smartphone case for Apple and Samsung smartphones that’ll hold your Juul and an extra pod so you’ll never have to endure the tourture of waiting…

CREATE BEAUTIFUL PRESENTATIONS WOW FAMILY AND COLLEAGUES ALIKE WITH ASHAMPOO SLIDESHOW STUDIO 2019. FULL VERSION WORTH $20 Ashampoo Slideshow Studio 2019 easily turns images and sounds into stunning slideshows with complementary music, transitions, fades and opening/closing credits. It’s the perfect way to present your photos as dynamic videos at home, at school, in the office or any other occasion. Add your own voice narration, texts, logos and sound effects to give your work an individual touch. There’s no need for any previous knowledge thanks to the straightforward interface. On top of that, a built-in wizard guides users from start to finish to help them tell their story in just a few steps. Supported output formats include both WMV and the cutting-edge WebM (VP9) format. Download link: www.ashampoo.com/techlifemagazine ELIMINATE MOVIE FILE…

Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. has reportedly made a formal offer to buy Fitbit, the company responsible for the popular line of fitness trackers and smartwatches. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that an acquisition is imminent, it would certainly benefit the company, which has long been rumoured to have a Pixel Watch in the works. Google has already developed its own smartwatch operating system in WearOS, although the company hasn’t produced any of its own products to run it on at this stage. If the rumoured acquisition were to go ahead, it’d be likely that’d we’d slowly see Fitbit migrate to this WearOS instead of the native operating system it currently uses, and for the fitness-tracking heritage of the brand to assist in powering that element of the Pixel Watch,…

AS PHYSICAL RETAILERS continue moving towards the world wide web, so too does a different kind of e-commerce. Second-hand selling has grown exponentially over the last ten years, with a growing number of platforms offering a place to buy and sell items among a community of ordinary users. eBay is one such service, with more than 11 million unique users visiting eBay Australia every month. While a large proportion of the goods up for grabs may be brand new, don’t let that deter you from listing second-hand items – it may surprise you to learn just how much some things are worth, especially those that are one of a kind or limited edition. By the same token, eBay is also a great platform for small businesses looking to sell their…

If you discount Telltale’s adventures with the Caped Crusader and a VR spinoff, it’s been a long time – over four years – since we’ve donned the cape and cowl as Batman. While Rocksteady continues working behind doors locked very tightly, WB Montreal has gone a different route. Not only do we know that its next game takes place in the Batman universe, we know thanks to a premature tweet who the main antagonist will be. That’s not all we know, either. Here’s everything we know so far about WB Montreal’s untitled Batman game – aka the new Batman Arkham game, aka Court of Owls. Yes, a Batman game is all but officially confirmed. The first question many have about WB Montreal’s project is a sensible one; are we even…

It’s late afternoon in Tokyo, and in the narrow three story home that serves as the headquarters of the Game Preservation Society, I’ve just learned about Jesus. In the west, when we talk about videogame developer Enix, we’re probably talking about Dragon Quest, which inspired an explosion of console JRPGs in the 90s. Joseph Redon would much rather talk about a PC game like Jesus, which was made by Enix around the same time as the first Dragon Quest, back in 1987. Like most of the thousands of games in Redon’s collection, I’ve never heard of Jesus until he shows it to me. The mission of the Game Preservation Society, the non-profit he co-founded, is to collect, archive, and protect Japan’s PC games, most of them made in the 80s…

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free AD-DRIVEN BUT STILL HANDY. MINITOOL POWER DATA Recovery Free is the only program in this round-up that provides you with essential advice during the installation: do not install the software to the drive you want to recover data from, as you may overwrite files. This version is free, but there are paid-for editions available as well, so you will realise that there are a few restrictions. You can only recover 1GB of data, you don’t have the option of saving scan results to work with later, and a few other options are missing – but there’s absolutely nothing that stops this from being a great free recovery utility, aside from the occasional ad. You can limit scans to specific file types, and MiniTool Power Data…

FOLLOWING ON FROM this year’s mid-range Galaxy Tab S5e, Samsung’s latest Android tablet is clearly gunning for the iPad Pro crowd with its new (and very premium) Galaxy Tab S6, a productivity-focused device that just might score itself a few converts. For those who want to get some serious work done, the Tab S6’s built-in Samsung DeX mode provides the tablet with an optional desktop-style interface, complete with folders, overlapping windows and all the usual PC conveniences. Naturally, you can improve your productivity by pairing a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to the device, or simply purchase the Tab S6’s official keyboard cover ($199), which has its own touchpad for precise pointer control. Like Apple’s top-tier tablet, the Galaxy Tab S6 can be used in tandem with a specially-designed stylus, in…

I’M NEVER LESS than impressed at what a modern, consumer projector can throw against a wall, and while Asus’ latest may not be competing with high-end units any time soon, it still manages to make quite a case for itself. Weighing a shade less than half a kilogram, portability is its biggest selling point – it sits neatly in the palm of your hand, and can be lugged around in your everyday carry without even noticing the extra weight. If you want to keep it cabled, that adds some more bulk and weight, but an in-built 6000mAh lets your project away without fear for over three hours. Wi-Fi capability also means you can ditch yet another cable, and hooking the Zenbeam 2 up to your smartphone is a breeze, essentially…

If you’re looking for a fully featured free alternative to RootsMagic, then try My Family Tree (https:// chronoplexsoftware.com). Its main weakness is that it doesn’t link in with any online websites to provide both record matches and the ability to merge those records into your tree. Other paid-for programs also work with different genealogy websites: if you have a subscription to The Genealogist, then choose TreeView Standard Edition (www.thegenealogist.co.uk/shop/). Find My Past users should take a look at Family Historian (www.family-historian.co.uk) while MyHeritage subscribers should look at Family Tree Builder (free, www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder).…

When searching, a name on its own isn’t enough – who knew so many people shared the same name throughout the ages? Ideally, you’ll have additional information to throw in, like a birth date or the name of at least one immediate family member. All of this can then be entered into the search tool to try and narrow results further. FamilySearch has records from across the globe, so narrow your search to a specific country (such as Australia) by entering it into the Location box under ‘Restrict records by’. When searching for female ancestors, don’t forget to include their maiden name in searches to locate records from before they were married. Also look for options to search for variants of your ancestor’s name, to catch potential spelling or transcribing…

01 SELECT AREA TO SCAN We’re using VueScan for this tutorial, but you should be able to replicate most of the steps in your own scanning application. Open VueScan and click the Preview button. When it’s complete, click and drag a box around the photo – VueScan will automatically adjust its lighting settings. 02 SET COLOUR AND RESOLUTION Choose ‘Gray’ from the Media drop-down menu if scanning in black and white or sepia-tinted images. Set the scanner resolution to 300 dpi to create a photo the same size and resolution as the original when printed; choose 600 dpi for smaller photos (3x2-inches or passport-sized). 03 ADJUST LIGHTING If the photo’s lighting isn’t perfect, explore ways of improving it. VueScan users should click the Options+ button once to reveal more options,…

01 CONNECT TO ANCESTRY It’s possible to link any RootsMagic trees you’ve created to your Ancestry account, and doing so will reveal potential record matches online. Select ‘Internet > TreeShare for Ancestry’, click Sign in, enter your account credentials, tick both boxes and click ‘Sign In’ again. 02 UPLOAD YOUR TREE Choose ‘Upload to new Ancestry Tree’ to upload your existing tree to Ancestry. Fill in the details – including giving your tree a suitable name and description, plus choosing what to upload and whether to make the tree public or not. Click the button to upload the tree followed by Close. 03 FINISHING TOUCH Now select Tools > File Options > Ancestry. Change the Ancestry domain dropdown to Australia (.com.au) to enable web hints. Click OK. Finally, log on…

If you can’t afford a dedicated NAS solution, but don’t trust cloud providers to look after your data either, why not add an extra layer of encryption to that data using a free client-side tool like Cryptomator (https://cryptomator.org). Cryptomator creates a special ‘vault’ – a virtual drive inside which all your most sensitive files can be stored, which resides in your cloud folder. The vault’s contents are encrypted by Cryptomator before they leave your PC, and the encryption keys remain off limits to your cloud provider (or anyone else). The vault itself functions like a regular USB drive, although there’s a performance hit as files are individually encrypted when copied into the vault or updated inside it. Rather than save directly to the folder, then, use it as a secure…

YOUR DATA IS now backed up, ensuring your precious files and memories are protected. But what about the rest of your computer? What if you’ve inadvertently missed a critical folder or file? And what about Windows itself, along with all your applications and carefully crafted program settings? If Windows falls over, you could lose these, never mind the hours required to bring everything back up to speed. The solution lies in taking what’s known as a ‘drive image’. As the name implies, a drive image is a complete copy of one or more drives or drive partitions on your PC. The next time you run into problems – after a botched Windows Update, say – you can simply roll your computer back to its previous self within minutes, with nothing…

HE UNTHINKABLE HAS happened. You’ve lost a file or – worse still – Windows won’t boot. This is the moment when all the hard work you’ve undertaken to protect your data comes riding to the rescue. In this portion of the feature we’ll reveal how to get things up and running again with a minimum of fuss. RECOVER FROM FILE HISTORY If you’re looking to restore a lost or accidentally deleted file – or undo recent changes to a file – your first port of call is your data backup. Start with File History – type file history into the Search box and click ‘Restore your files with File History’. A window will open showing all the folders currently in your backup, along with the date the backup was taken.…

FOR A PROJECT that needs jazzing up, say a flyer or a poster, text effects can be an interesting and fun way to inject the required level of flamboyance. Fonts in Windows are handled as vectors – mathematical descriptions of where lines go and how thick they are – which means they can be scaled up and down smoothly without becoming blocky or pixelated. In an application such as Photoshop Elements 2019 you can take things further, treating the letters not just as vectors, but also as rasterised graphics, enabling you to do all the editing tricks you’d normally do to a photo, but to the text. Here, we’re going to look at two common treatments for text in Photoshop Elements 2019: making it glow like a neon sign; and…

FOR MOST OF us, video streaming is the thing most likely to consume the lion’s share of our bandwidth. Sure, there may be the occasional game or application download that sucks up our bandwidth for a time, but video is the prime reason for the explosive growth in demand for ever-faster broadband in the last decade. But that may be changing soon. There are services coming where the bandwidth demands are going to dwarf those of video streaming: game streaming services. So what will the new wave of game streaming services mean for your home network, and how do you best set up for them? THE SERVICES Let’s start by taking a look at the services. Game streaming services have been around for a few years now – but not…

BRINGING FINE DETAIL to life is much more than simply the result of your camera and lens combination. Of course, the best lenses will always do a great job of resolving detail, but there are definitely a few tricks you can place up your image-processing sleeve to further enhance this aspect of photography. In the techniques I’m covering here, I’m going to show you how to accentuate detail, control colour balance in different parts of the image, as well as using black-and-white to reveal unseen detail. The overall aim is to enhance different parts of an image to make them stand out more. The image selected here is oozing detail and has strong shadows, making it absolutely perfect for the techniques we’re exploring. But regardless of the image you’re processing,…

Ancient babies used ‘sippy cups’ JUST THE KIND OF ADVICE WE AUSSIES NEED. BABIES AND YOUNG children drank from clay ‘sippy cups’ during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and the practice may have existed as early as 7,000 years ago, a recent study reveals. These spouted artefacts have been found at archaeological sites across Europe, first appearing in the Neolithic period and becoming more common, according to the study. Scientists suspected that the vessels were meant for feeding babies and toddlers, but some researchers argued that the pottery may have been meant for adults who were sick, injured or elderly. However, researchers have found the residue of animal milk fats, suggesting that the vessels held milk that was likely fed to young children to supplement breastfeeding or to…

11Gbit/s THE THEORETICAL MAXIMUM COMBINED DATA RATE OF A WI-FI 6 DEVICE. THE NEW WIRELESS STANDARD, AKA 802.11AX. KB4515384 IS A WINDOWS 10 UPDATE CAUSING SOME PEOPLE TROUBLE WITH CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET. IF YOU’RE AFFECTED, TRY ROLLING IT BACK. 60 YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE THE COBOL COMPUTER PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE WAS FIRST DESIGNED. BASED ON WORK BY US REAR ADMIRAL GRACE HOPPER, THE NEARLY PENSIONABLE LANGUAGE IS STILL WIDELY USED ON MAINFRAME COMPUTERS. 27% OF SMARTPHONES HAVE SMASHED SCREENS, ACCORDING TO A SURVEY OF 2,400 OFFICE WORKERS. 2% OF THOSE ARE COMPLETELY UNUSABLE. 1,585 THE NUMBER OF SOFTWARE VULNERABILITIES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THOSE IN WINDOWS, DISCOVERED BY GOOGLE’S PROJECT ZERO BETWEEN JULY 2014 AND JULY 2019. THE OUTFIT GIVES VENDORS 30 DAYS TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM, USUALLY WITH…

STORES. Looking to take your business to the next level? We recommend signing up for a store subscription. Starting at $24.95 per month, a store membership unlocks additional tools and features, plus benefits such as an increased number of free listings and lower final value fees. To sign up, visit the subscriptions section of My eBay under the account tab. You’ll find more information here: https:// sellercentre.ebay.com.au/store-levels-and-benefits. PROMOTIONS MANAGER. If you’re a store subscriber, then why not create an incentive for buyers by offering discounts and special offers on your products. Available to sellers with a premium subscription, eBay’s promotions manager lets you do things like run promos such as 2-for-1 and percentage off discounts, vouchers and multi-buy offers. You’ll find the tool in the marketing tab of eBay’s Seller…

OUTLAST DEVELOPER RED BARRELS, KNOWN ON TWITTER THIS SEASON AS ‘RED BOO-RRELS,’ POSTED A CRYPTIC TEASER FOR THEIR NEXT PROJECT WITH THE CAPTION, “ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON.” It was a bountiful Halloween for horror fans, as the studio behind two of this generation’s scariest games just teased something new. Outlast developer Red Barrels, known on twitter this past Halloween season as ‘Red BOO-rrels,’ posted a cryptic teaser for their next project with the caption, “Announcement coming soon.” In December of 2017, Red Barrels posted to Facebook a vague promise of a new game. Though it’s been some time, the studio made clear that while a sequel to Outlast 2 wasn’t in development at the time, they were working on something set within the Outlast universe. The studio gave precious few details…

$79 | PS4, Xbox One, Windows | www.callofduty.com MODERN WARFARE ASKS us to engage with the experience of war through the Reflex Sight of an M4A1 assault rifle. It does this even as it gives us the rare opportunity to peer behind the veil of smoke and shrapnel that Call of Duty typically throws up to mask its moral ambiguity, daring us to consider the ethical complexities of the contemporary conflicts it so liberally draws inspiration from. This is made clear from the outset of Modern Warfare’s campaign – vocalised openly by characters stood on the teetering edge of the uncanny valley – and these intentions are almost immediately at odds with one another. This has forced Infinity Ward down a perilous path. When its good intentions coalesce, Modern Warfare…

The VHD, or Video High Density, is actually a vinyl disc inside a plastic shell. It could hold an hour of video, and was a competitor to the LaserDisc, read by a stylus instead of a laser. “There is only one big issue with the VHD. Like VHS, every time you watch it, the quality degrades. But when you have a brand new VHD, you have the highest quality possible at that time,” Redon says. Dragon’s Lair used a LaserDisc for its video, and in Japan some games used the VHD for the same thing. You’d need a VHD player for the MSX or Sharp X1 PC, but that disk only housed the video. The program would live on a tape that also came in the box, but some games…

JUSTIFYING A NEAR FOUR-FIGURE PRICE TAG IS A TOUGH ASK WITH ANY CHROMEBOOK. AND WE’RE NOT CONVINCED ACER HAS ENTIRELY PULLED IT OFF. THE NEW ACER Chromebook 715’s near four-figure price tag seriously raises expectations for both build quality and specifications. A quick scan of the core features would suggest Acer has met them. The chassis is all-alloy, there’s a fast quad-core CPU, an IPS touchscreen and, well, you get the idea. Take a closer look, however, and you might not be quite so convinced. The Acer Chromebook 715’s chassis is indeed all-alloy, for instance, and feels robust. The broad keyboard complete with a full number pad is a nice feature, too. But it’s a pretty anonymous and has the air of a mid-market rather than truly premium device. The…

LAUNCHED AT THE same time as the Canon EOS 90D DSLR, the EOS M6 Mark II is not only an evolution of the previous M6; in some respects it’s a miniature 90D, as the two cameras share the same sensor. Canon’s M range of mirrorless APS-C cameras have been playing second-fiddle to its full-frame options lately, and while some of Canon’s M-series models are underrated, decent performers, the original M6 arguably wasn’t the easiest to fall in love with. The EOS M6 Mark II represents a fairly dramatic overhaul of that camera. Canon’s decision to place a high-resolution sensor inside a miniature body along with a range of impressive, action-friendly specifications is a fairly bold move for a model which might otherwise only appeal to travel photographers. The M6 Mark…

When looking for a new camera, it’s important to know what kind of shots you want to take with it, to think about how seriously you take your photography, and to consider how technology has changed since you last went camera shopping. With its peerless Alpha range, Sony is the market leader in mirrorless camera technology, offering stylish designs, interchangeable lenses, and pristine shots. They’re the best-selling and most exciting mirrorless cameras on the market, and the range keeps growing. “The incredible 61.0MP CMOS image sensor is a game-changer, designed to reduce noise in your images and produce the highest quality photographs possible.” Here, we’re focusing on the two most recent Sony Alpha digital camera releases, the Alpha 7R IV and the Alpha 9 II. The Alpha 7R IV comes…

01 ENTER BASIC INFORMATION When you create a new person, you’ll be prompted to enter their basic details: name, gender, plus birth and – if applicable – death and burial information (be sure to untick the Living box if this is the case). Leave any unknown information blank, and finish by clicking OK. 02 ADD NEW FACTS A person’s life is made up of facts (sometimes referred to as ‘events’) – you’ll see the birth, death and burial details already entered constitute individual facts. Click the ‘Add a fact’ button to add a new event. Pick your fact type from the list and click Select. 03 EDIT FACT DETAILS A new blank fact will appear in the list, selected. You’ll see boxes on the right where you can fill in…

01 MATCH PERSON Once your first person is matched (see main text), click their blue FamilySearch icon. The FamilySearch Person Tools dialogue will reopen to the ‘Share data’ tab. Your RootsMagic data is listed in the left-hand pane, information on FamilySearch is on the right. 02 SWAP DATA Compare the info in both panes – to download information from FamilySearch click the tick box next to an item in the right-hand pane. A new window will open – choose to add a new fact, remove from FamilySearch or replace an existing fact in your tree. Review and click OK. 03 FAMILY MEMBERS Scroll down to the Family Members section where you’ll see potential matches between FamilySearch and the people in your tree. Click the FamilySearch icon next to a person’s…

YOUR FAMILY TREE is up and running, you’ve exhausted FamilySearch’s record sets and started making use of paid-for websites like Ancestry, Find My Past and MyHeritage. RootsMagic’s built-in web hints feature helps you track down potential records by searching each site for records potentially matching each person in your tree, then providing you with a convenient means of reviewing these matches. Hints are provided for all four websites mentioned, with results from Find My Past and MyHeritage automatically listed when you switch the feature on under Tools > File Options > Webhints. If you want to use Ancestry’s record-matching feature, you’ll need to perform some additional steps as outlined in the step-by-step guide. After you’ve performed these steps, close RootsMagic and visit www. ancestry.com.au in your browser. Log into your…

THE FIRST THING you need to do when setting up your backup regimen is to ensure you have at least two suitable backup destinations in place. One should be ‘local’, as in the same room (or network) as your PC, so typically an external drive of some kind, connected via USB or network cable. The other should be ‘remote’, so housed in a separate location in case you’re subject to fire, theft or damage. Secure file storage is important for all your files, but especially for important and personal information - like your family tree research! NETWORK VERSUS USB When it comes to your local backup location, you’ve a straight choice between a drive directly attached to your PC, or a network hard drive (also known as a NAS –…

LET’S START WITH backing up your data files. These are typically files you’ve created yourself, such as documents, photos and videos. Their personal nature makes them irreplaceable if lost, which is why you should back them up separately from the rest of your PC. When backing up, it also pays to store multiple versions of your files, giving you the opportunity to roll back to an earlier version if you accidentally save unwanted changes. This functionality is built into Windows in the form of File History, which you can set up by clicking Start > Settings > Update & Security > Backup. If you’ve not already set it up, you’ll be prompted to do so now by choosing a backup drive to save to. Click ‘More options’ to choose exactly…

As things stand, your backup regimen now protects you from disaster, but why not go further? Paragon supports multiple back-up jobs, so you could, for example, take a single drive image the next time you reinstall Windows after you’ve finished setting things up. Next time you need to reinstall, just restore this drive image and save yourself time getting things set up. If you partitioned your drive to hive off your data from Windows you might also want to take periodic drive images of that too, in case your regular backup inadvertently misses out certain files. Here a chain of backups comprising one full and three incremental or differential backups on a weekly schedule would prove adequate without taking up too much space on your drive backup. If you go…

If Windows ever loses contact with your File History backup drive – for example, after reinstalling Windows from scratch – then reconnecting it should be handled with care. Type control panel into the search box, click Control Panel and choose ‘Save backup copies of your files…’ under ‘System and Security’. Click ‘Select drive’ and, if necessary, ‘Add network location’ to connect to your backup drive. Select this and you should see an option to select a previous backup to reconnect to it. Once done, you can continue backing up as before, plus recover data from this backup if you need to.…

Huawei is a bit of a non-starter give its new phones won’t even support Google apps, let alone 5G (a result of the US trade ban). However, the Apple iPhone 11 and Google Pixel 4 are worth looking at given their popularity – notwithstanding their lack of 5G. The killer feature offered by both the iPhone 11 and Pixel 4 is exceptional photography. Apple has equipped the flagship iPhone 11 Pro Max with a triple camera array that, for the first time on an iPhone, includes a dedicated wide-angle lens so you can include more of the background into each shot – a boon for landscape and group shots. Apple has also stepped up its low-light game, producing less noise and more detail in photos shot at night time. 4K…

WHEN IT COMES to apps that are already preinstalled on your Mac, a lot of us neglect Apple’s Calendar. It seems pretty basic on the surface, but there’s actually a lot of hidden depth once you dedicate the time to start exploring it beyond its most basic features. For example, setting up iCloud’s Family Sharing feature is a great way to bring hectic family life under control, as it provides a shared calendar for your closest relatives. All members are automatically added to the family calendar, which is synced to iCloud.com and their devices. You can then use it to make sure that everyone in the house knows about an important upcoming family event, or that the kids know for certain when their chores are due to be completed. If…

CLOSE-UP PHOTOGRAPHY IS all about capturing detail. Whether the image is a macro shot of a plant in a natural setting or a magnified product image, the goal is the same – to show elements of the subject that are not easily visible with the naked eye. A characteristic feature of close-up images is shallow depth of field, introduced by the close focussing distances used. While this can compliment some subjects, with commercial product shots or scientific record images of natural subjects this fall-off in sharpness is often undesirable. For this image of a food product, it was essential to render the front item equally sharp across its surface. While it is possible to extend DOF by stopping down the aperture, the high f-number required would compromise lens resolution through…