Innehållsförteckning för December 2020 från TechLife

macOS Big Sur will allow users to stream Netflix in 4K HDR for the first time, but it looks like only a handful of Macs will support the feature. As reported by Apple Terminal, streaming Netflix content in 4K will require more than a Mac that supports Big Sur. It spotted a newly-updated support document on Netflix’s Help Center that reveals only devices with a T2 Security chip will support the high-quality streaming. The support page confirms that as well as a Mac with macOS 11.0 Big Sur and the latest version of Safari installed, a 60Hz 4K-capable display, you’ll need a “select 2018 or later Mac with an Apple T2 Security chip.” This means in order to stream Netflix in 4K on macOS, you’ll need a MacBook Pro (2018…

From $3,199, www.dell.com Have to ask how much? You probably can’t afford it. So it goes with the latest revision of the fabulous Alienware M15 gaming laptop for 2020. At least it does for this absolutely loaded review configuration. This 15-inch beast is crammed with pretty much the finest components known to science, humanity, Christendom, you name it. First up, given this is a gaming laptop, is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super graphics card. It’s Nvidia’s top mobile graphics chip, and thus ultimately the best currently available. However, for the relatively slim M15 chassis Alienware has opted for the low-clocked Max-Q version of the 2080 Super, which limits performance somewhat. Nvidia does have some new 3000-series graphics chips, like the RTX 3080, but mobile versions are some way off.…

Lockdown is the perfect time for experimenting with virtual reality spaces and though we’ve seen developments slow a little this month, there are some neat developments from Facebook including the Oculus Quest 2 and an AR headset prototype that gives you super hearing capabilities. The empty streets are encouraging the machines to drive, with new AI tools beating the world’s best drivers in Gran Turismo Sport driving sims and illegally speeding sleeping passengers across Canada. It’s also preaching a new gospel, helping improve IVF success rates and keeping an eye on how drunk you are. Let’s just hope AI doesn’t wander too far down the fire and brimstone path. XR Fundamental Surgery VR $NA, fundamentalvr.com While you are probably more used to using VR to hone your skills at hitting…

Sea of Thieves isn’t the kind of game you want to dive blindly into, especially in 2020 when so much content has been added, so Rare has opened the Pirate Academy to help beginners learn from the most seasoned seafarers. The Pirate Academy is a collection of lessons designed to help new sailors find their sea legs, from picking out a pirate and embarking on your maiden voyage to finding a crew and turning in loot. I remember it taking quite a while before I could remember which merchants take which type of treasure, so this is useful stuff even it’s not your first time playing. There are also lessons for navigating outposts, sailing a ship, and “Life and Death.” “We’re proud to introduce you to this library of lessons…

$79, PS4, PC, Xbox www.avengers.square-enix-games.com The Marvel’s Avengers marketing campaign and its multi-weekend beta buried the lede, guys. At the core of this loot-based, cosmetic-heavy, live-service game is a fantastic, roughly 12-hour campaign full of pathos, personality, and yes, a lot of punching. If you’re surprised by that, you’re not alone – I was shocked to complete the now all-too-familiar opening scene and dive into a captivating campaign centered around the perfect protagonist. So shocked, I didn’t want it to end. If Marvel’s Avengers is an Iron Man suit, Kamala Khan is its arc reactor, propelling the story forward and providing necessary emotional torque. She should have been featured in the marketing materials far more than she was, because she really is *the* Avenger in this game. Her story and…

$1,399, www.asus.com The Asus Vivobook Flip 14 is this year’s refresh of the company’s budget 2-in-1 hybrid laptop, featuring an updated chassis design and AMD’s Ryzen CPUs over last year’s Intel processors. The result is a stylish and powerful 2-in-1 that is very hard to beat for the price. The switch to the AMD Ryzen CPU adds a good bit of power to the Flip 14 as it outperforms many rival Intel systems on most benchmarks. The integrated Radeon graphics also takes a considerable lead over Intel’s integrated graphics systems. “The one major issue we had with it was the magnetic fob Asus included to keep the stylus attached to the Flip 14. Connecting to the lid surface, the magnetic connection isn’t the strongest out there, so it isn’t all…

$2,999, www.samsung.com Jaded about smartphones? Think you’ve seen it all? The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the cure; the one piece of tech that has truly wowed us in 2020. It’s the only foldable phone with 5G that we recommend buying – if, and only if, money is no object. Every time the screen folds in half, it impresses. Strangers in a socially distant New York City, not eager to make small talk right now, are stopping us to ask: what is that thing? And is it actually worth buying? Let’s take those two questions one at a time. The Fold 2 is the screen-bending sequel to the Galaxy Fold 1, with nearly all of the improvements we asked for 11 months ago. Its 6.2-inch Cover Display fixes our…

$299, en-au.sennheiser.com Having established its credentials as a high-end true wireless earbud front-runner with two generations of its Momentum True Wireless, Sennheiser’s now turned its attention to the less rarefied area where Apple, Microsoft, Sony and all the rest duke it out. At $299, the CX400BT are pitched right into the thick of the action. Happily, the CX400BT are specified to compete. They have aptX Bluetooth connectivity, with SBC and AAC codecs catered for too; they have app-based EQ adjustment; they have responsive touch-controls (which can be customised in the app); and they can be operated using Google Assistant or Siri. They share the same 7mm full-range dynamic driver as their more expensive Momentum True Wireless 2 siblings too, though they go without that model’s active noise-cancelling technology. Thanks to…

From $559.95, gopro.com/en/au We suspect that not many people would have had a particularly adventure-packed year in 2020, but GoPro said their sales fared reasonably well thanks to users getting creative with their action cameras at home. And so, it makes sense that the Hero 9 Black design is leaning into this new style of content creation, with major updates like a new selfie screen, a bigger battery, web camera capabilities and a larger overall profile all benefiting at-home users. While the Hero 8 Black had a front facing, e-ink screen that showed you recording duration, battery life and storage space, the Hero 9 Black updates this to a 1.4-inch full colour LCD display. The front facing screen is a really handy feature when framing shots of yourself and it…

There are a number of key factors to consider when you’re deciding what office chair to buy. What’s your budget? Is it a good idea to buy second-hand? Do you want a fully ergonomic chair? And what other major considerations are involved in ensuring – to the best of your ability – that you’re buying a good office chair? In this article, we’ll take a look at five vital points in any office chair purchasing decision, but of course further bear in mind that we have a guide which rounds up all the best office chairs currently around, which you might also find helpful. And if you’ve got a gaming chair, is it okay to use that as your seat for long days at work on an ongoing basis? Doubtless…

THIS MONTH Q&A Your questions answered WINDOWS Search better in Windows 10 MAC Make your battery better iOS Learn more with ReadWise ANDROID Video chat and conferencing SECURITY & PRIVACY The ins and outs of wireless security HOME NETWORKING Best home servers (for free) FITNESS Improve your physical and mental health with a little bit of yoga A/V How to set up and position your speakers PHOTOGRAPHY Capture an easy abstract macro DIGITAL DARKROOM Perfect your workflow for editing landscapes Random freeze part 2 Regarding my earlier email about random freezes, by the time you responded, the whole PC had broken down: When I power on, the fans light up, and so does the RGB, but nothing else lights up, and the ROG logo does not light up when the…

REQUIRES An iOS device, the Readwise app YOU WILL LEARN How to import, memorise, and organize ebook highlights and notes IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes Reading ebooks can be thought–provoking, inspiring, and educational, prompting us to highlight memorable passages and take copious notes alongside them. Before we know it, though, we end up with an unassailable mountain of highlights that we never actually read, defeating the whole point of saving notes in the first place. Readwise aims to change that by making highlights much more accessible. Instead of being confronted with a heap of unsorted notes from your favorite books and articles, Readwise “surfaces” selected quotes in the app and in a round-up email every day, giving you a manageable digest of information that will help you memorise key passages…

In the years since its introduction in 1998, Wi-Fi has become a bedrock of most people’s home networking solutions – and that’s why it has become such an important factor for home security. Having your Wi-Fi network hacked can be devastating. It puts the attacker right in behind your network firewall, with direct access to any services that might be running on your home network. While the necessity of proximity does limit the number of attacks that occur through Wi-Fi, the effects of such a hack are potentially enormous. So let’s take a look at how your Wi-Fi might get hacked, how to prevent it, and what the consequences can be. How Wi-Fi can get hacked The goal of a Wi-Fi attack is simply to gain access to your home…

30,000 years ago a dead star on the other side of the Milky Way belched out a powerful mixture of radio and X-ray energy. On 28 April 2020 that belch swept over Earth, triggering alarms at observatories around the world. The signal was there and gone in half a second, but that’s all scientists needed to confirm they had detected something remarkable: the first-ever ‘fast radio burst’ (FRB) to emanate from a known star within the Milky Way. Since their discovery in 2007, FRBs have puzzled scientists. The bursts of powerful radio waves last only a few milliseconds at most, but generate more energy in that time than our Sun does in a century. Scientists have yet to pin down what causes these blasts, but they’ve proposed everything from colliding…

US$109.95, livescribe.com Coming across vaguely reminiscent of a gadget that James Bond may have used decades ago, the Livescribe Symphony isn’t the first smartpen by any means, with Livescribe amongst many companies vying to make a great smartpen for users. However, it is one of the few that seem to actually live up to their promises. Actually working very well, the Livescribe Symphony is an appealingly priced option – if of course pricier than regular a pen and paper. If you’re keen to make your note taking a little more effective, this is a good solution. It looks just like a standard pen, albeit a little chunkier, and it works much like one. Where it differs is that it has a camera pointed down at the nib so that it’s…

The Falconeer creator Tomas Sala spoke to Xbox Wire about what bringing his game to Xbox Series X meant for its development, and what excites him the most about the next generation of consoles. “When you wanted a more complex simulation you would have to spend so much of your time optimising the simulation just to make it perform. I think that’s something the new generation offers – more complex enemies and ecologies filled with creatures and enemies all exhibiting more interesting behaviours.”…

So far, only a synopsis has been officially revealed by HBO: “The story takes place 20 years after modern civilisation has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.” As revealed by The Hollywood Reporter in early March, the series will “cover the events of the original game… with the possibility of additional content based on the forthcoming game sequel [The Last of Us 2].” A separate report from the publication indicates that “future seasons” are a possibility, meaning this is unlikely to be a Chernobyl-style miniseries but instead one that…

US$29.99, Xbox, PC, www.tellmewhygame.com Taken as a whole experience, Tell Me Why offers a much-needed reshaping of the choose your own adventure games, moving away from cliffhangers and dramatic, distinct choices towards a more gentle and meaningful experience. The game features bouts of magic realism, but is most magic in its human moments. All the major choices shape your character’s experience more than their actions, and while the first, introductory chapter occasionally feels shallow, later chapters are overflowing with depth. Tyler Ronan, the first trans character leading a game for a major studio, is also the first truly well-written trans character in gaming, and comes with no strings attached. He’s wonderful, so clearly shaped by his transness yet made of so much more than it. Alyson plays her part too,…

$1,799, .www2.hp.com We give you the HP Envy 13, refreshed for 2020. HP’s slightly cheaper, marginally chunkier answer to the all-conquering Dell XPS 13. Configured here with a quad-core variant from Intel’s very latest 10nm Ice Lake family of CPUs, the broad idea is 13-inch portability without compromising performance. The first half of that equation is largely delivered. The HP Envy 13 is a few millimetres thicker than the Dell XPS 13. But it remains an eminently portable PC. Overall proportions are kept in check by slim bezels on each side of the display and slightly larger screen borders above and below. The top bezel allows for a 720p webcam with a useful privacy cover enabled with a keystroke. Again, while Dell does it slightly better when it comes to…

$499, www.tcl.com The TCL 10L may not be the company’s showstopper – that’s the TCL 10 Pro – but it is a crucial stepping stone in TCL’s bid to progress from merely dallying in smartphones to contending with the established brands. TCL has sold cheap phones through its sub-brand Alcatel for years, but it’s finally putting its name on a range of mid- and high-quality handsets. The TCL 10L is the middleground between the Alcatel handsets and the 10 Pro statement phone, a workhorse that could end up in more hands by nature of being more affordable. Cheap phones in 2020 come with more features, better cameras and a greater level of polish than in previous years – and the 10L is no exception, despite being more or less a…

$299, www.marshallheadphones.com The Marshall Emberton Bluetooth speaker almost looks like a novelty gift you get for someone when you couldn’t afford the full and ‘real’ thing. It’s effectively a miniaturised version of a Marshall guitar amp, and that immediately makes it look stylish and cool. Underneath that classy exterior is a competent portable speaker in its own right that might lack a bit of power and extra functionality for its price of $299, but it’s still appealing stuff thanks to being super portable and roadworthy. While many Bluetooth speakers in this price range bundle in many features, the Marshall Emberton keeps things pretty simple. It’s a fairly rugged and immensely portable speaker that you can easily toss in your bag and take wherever you’re going. It only weighs 0.7kg and…

# ON YOUR TRAVELS #1 VanMoof S3/X3 If you’re considering an electric bike, nobody does it better right now than VanMoof. From the spectacular styling to the newly upgraded motor, from smart features like remote lockdown theft defence to ride-changers like automatic electronic gear shifting, the S3 and X3 mark a pin-sharp display of bike design expertise. This is the best urban ride going, and great fun with it. US$1,998, vanmoof.com #2 S’well Stainless Steel Commuter Mug Available with a generous 470ml capacity, S’well’s screw-top mug is perfect for a takeaway coffee and vacuum insulated to keep it warm for six hours. Vacuums work both ways, meaning it’s equally adept at keeping a nice draught of water cool for a whole day. Okay, yes, most vacuum mugs do that,…

“In many ways these attacks pose more of a threat than conventional warfare.” HOLD SECURITY BREACH August 2014 IT company Hold Security claimed Russian hackers had stolen 1.2 billion logins and passwords on 420,000 websites around the world. The breach could have allowed the CyberVor hacker group to access 500 million accounts. THEFT, PLANE AND SIMPLE 2010 to 2015 Many experts believe China engaged in cyber breaches to steal information from Western aerospace companies, passing their intellectual property to Chinese companies which it then used to supply parts for its C919 airliner. LINKEDIN BREACH 5 June 2012 Initially thought to have compromised 6.5 million passwords, in 2016 the company announced it was actually closer to 100 million. Russian hackers were thought to be behind the attack. YAHOO DATA BREACH 2013…

SKILL LEVEL Anyone can do it Tricky in parts SUITABLE FOR… Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7 Jargon buster! FILE INDEXING To help speed up searches, Windows indexes files so it has key information stored in a database that can be very quickly queried. SAFESEARCH A search filtering option that can be used to hide adult content from online results in Windows 10’s search tool. SEARCH BOX An optional toolbar in Windows’ taskbar, providing easy access to a search option without the need to specifically call it up. Best tip! Choose between search bar, search icon, or neither by right-clicking the taskbar, choosing Unless you are very organised, you have almost certainly mislaid the occasional file on your computer. Anyone who has spent time hunting through folders for a document…

Here’s how to sync those ebooks. Syncing your content from online services to Readwise is easy, but there’s one exception that takes a bit more work: Apple Books. First, download the Readwise Mac tool from readwise.io and install it. Launch the app and let it sync your Books highlights and notes. When it’s done, open Readwise on iOS and your Books highlights should have appeared. Be aware that if you’ve saved notes to a PDF using Preview, then imported it into Books, these notes will not transfer to Readwise. You need to make the notes in the Books app itself.…

Throughout the course of this year, we’ve been walking through the process of installing server apps for your home network. We’ve covered how to use Windows Services for Linux to run Linux server apps on a Windows PC; we’ve looked at using Docker to make that process astronomically easier; we’ve looked at how you can make those services accessible from outside your home network. So now, we thought we’d take a look at the apps that are actually worth running on your home network. There are plenty of apps we could cover here, and we’ve excluded ones we’ve covered elsewhere like ownCloud, Kodi and Plex, but here are six of our top suggestions for you to try out. diaspora*  diasporafoundation.org Unofficial Docker image: hub. docker.com/r/koehn/diaspora/ You know what many people…

Macro shooting opens up new doors for creative and abstract photography. The use of a macro lens allows the capture of fine detail, in addition to a highly scaled-back sense of context, giving the macro and close-up genre tremendous scope for capturing novel subjects in a world of their own. A popular subject is water and its interaction with natural scenes. Droplets on leaves, or – as is the case with the image featured here – suspended in a spider’s web are so effective, as they distort an already unfamiliar view of the world. By cropping in close on droplets, you can resolve the background that lays beyond the water when looking through the droplets, or reflect the surroundings on the surface, as if they are miniature lenses. Indeed, there…

Maxim Air Blazer $210, gottlichdesign.com While Gottlitch’s jargon-fuelled marketing campaign will have you believing that the Maxim Air Blazer is made from fibres that use ‘Nano Technology’ to repel stains, the actual tech in this suit maxes out at a magnetic clasp that means you no longer have a need for jacket buttons. This jacket 2.0 is also said to offer a fully reversible design for two unique styles, weighs 66 percent less than traditional jackets, is made from 3D stretchable materials, and has wrinkle and odour resistant properties. The Indiegogo even features an informative chart showing you how much better the Maxim Air Blazer is at these things than anything from Ralph Lauren. VAE: Energy Spray US$69, igg.me/at/vaelabs/x# If vaping was your Bae, but you want to be an…

$3,399, www.razer.com One of the premier gaming laptops to hit the streets, the Razer Blade 15 has made a name for itself rocking the best mobile hardware inside its elegant exterior. That brilliant combination has, in fact, led some folks to call it the “MacBook Pro of gaming laptops”. For 2020, the Razer Blade 15 carries on its legacy, this time around boasting the best Intel Comet Lake-H processors and RTX Super graphics chips under its classy hood. It sports the same aluminum unibody design that the laptop line is known for and is very much reminiscent of a MacBook Pro. It also has two large speaker grilles at the top of the laptop, alongside a trackpad that is, without a doubt, one of the best on any Windows laptop.…

“The Pixel 5 has a number of notable improvements over the Pixel 4a 5G: it’s water resistant, has wireless and reverse wireless charging.” The 30 minute event was delivered at such a lightning-fast pace, though, that you’d be forgiven if some of the key dates, reveals or announcements passed you by. Don’t worry, though, as we’re on hand to recap everything you might have missed from Google’s Pixel 5 launch event. Let’s dive in. Google TV Google kicked off proceedings with a look at Google TV, which is the successor, and essentially a rebranding of Android TV. It promises to be more helpful when you’re trying to choose what content to watch than some of its rivals. Chromecast with Google TV Google Chromecast now comes with a little remote that…

What’s harder than a diamond, a third lighter and could zip with electricity? A pentadiamond. A crystalline arrangement of carbon atoms that is made up mostly of pentagons. These don’t exist yet – they’ve only been created in computer simulations – but if one can be made, it could have a number of useful properties. Carbon is one of the most versatile elements on the periodic table. Since each carbon atom can bond with up to four others, it is able to form intricate assemblies with different properties, such as ultra-hard diamond, semiconducting graphene and rope-like nanotubes. Novel arrangements, or allotropes of carbon are being discovered all the time. As many as 1,000 different types are currently known. The search for additional allotropes is like “playing [with] LEGO blocks to…

Can I get a really cheap wireless outdoor security camera? Kris Petersson Oh, sure. Amazon is becoming basically overrun with Chinese wireless cams, some as cheap as $50. But you’re not an idiot (or you might be, Guru isn’t here to judge) so you’ll realise that a budget security solution is basically the tech equivalent of buying cut-price toilet paper: it’s neither pleasant nor a particularly secure experience, and one which may just let human waste through. GaGu would absolutely steer you towards a known brand that costs slightly more, be that the only-vaguely-known Kami (check out the chunky Wire Free Outdoor Camera, priced around $140) or Amazon-owned Blink (the XT2 is compact, comes with a hub, and lasts for two years on a pair of AAs). Or even, y’know,…

Ever since the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik, by the USSR in October 1957, thousands more have orbited – and remain orbiting – the Earth. We don’t tend to hear about reconnaissance, or spy satellites though, and as their missions are classified, their equipment and capabilities are often not disclosed. Hundreds of these secretive spies in the sky have been launched since the 1960s. Spy satellites are used for both military and intelligence purposes, including detecting troop movements, monitoring the dismantling of nuclear weapons and radio signals, spotting missile launches and providing precise positional information. Flying high above the surface of Earth, these eyes are free to scan the ground below with their most important asset – their onboard camera. It’s estimated that these satellites can see objects on…

On 20 January 2020, something highly concerning happened hundreds of miles above the Earth’s surface. A Russian inspector satellite, called Kosmos 2542, manoeuvred itself behind USA-245, an imaging spy satellite. Instead of passing each other every 11 to 12 days, however, there’s now less than 300 kilometres between them. Experts believe that the Russian satellite is trying to gather information about the US mission; its radio-frequency probe could tell the Russians what pictures it’s taking and how it processes the data. What’s even more suspicious is that they’re closest to each other when in sunlight – the perfect conditions for surveillance. Although the evidence is coincidental, Russia’s not breaking any rules, so there isn’t much that the US can do about it. There are, however, growing concerns about the increasing…

$49, PS4, PC, Xbox www.ea.com Star Wars: Squadrons almost seems like a reaction to an entire generation of Star Wars games. Slick spectacle has been the calling card of EA’s time on the series, which has meant that games such as Battlefront looked the part, even when they sometimes didn’t feel it. This first-person dogfighting simulator, on the other hand, wants you to live it. As you plonk yourself into the seat of an X-Wing or TIE Fighter, every detail and decision is designed to immerse you in the cockpit of a starfighter, to turn idle daydreams of whooshing through a galaxy far, far away into a tangible experience. That it succeeds regularly in conjuring up moments of supreme wish-fulfilment is a testament to the approach developer Motive has taken.…

Genshin Impact BREATH OF THE… WEEBS. Free with IAP Genshin Impact, without a doubt, is the most graphically impressive game I have seen on mobile to date. Its beautiful, cel-shaded anime look, combined with sweeping animations and gorgeous graphical effects is a sight to behold, blowing almost every other game in its genre out of the water. It’s not just looks either – Genshin boasts a rich, wide open world with no boundaries, plenty of quests and dungeons, enemy encampments, a complex and rewarding combat system, an engrossing, fully-voiced story and four-player, cross-platform co-op. Wow. Genshin is one of the first games of its type to fully embrace mobile as a primary operating system for an open world RPG, and impressively extends its reach across to PC, PS4 and (eventually)…

$2,499, consumer.huawei.com Huawei’s MateBook 13 scored full marks when we looked at it last year and with new 10th gen Intel CPUs, upgraded discrete graphics and a bigger battery, everything looks in place for this to be another impressive offering from Huawei. The most obvious difference is the new 14-inch screen, which returns with the same 2160 by 1440 pixel resolution in a 3 by 2 aspect ratio that is good for viewing web pages. At 300nits it isn’t the brightest screen available, but it’s bright enough for general work tasks and media playback when cranked right up. The screen also has a decent 90% screen to body ratio with 4.9mm bezels on the top 3 edges after it followed the MateBook Pro X in dropping the webcam to a…

“The Full-HD resolution coupled with H.264 encoding and 60 frames-per-second capture speed delivers crisp and impressive detailed video.” $119, www.transcend-info.com Whether it’s to prove events to cops and insurers, catch a crim or to record a hoon for social media internet points, it’s surprising that so few cars have dashcams built-in as standard. But there are common issues in dashcam world: devices frequently look bulky, cheap and besmirch the windscreen of your automotive pride-and-joy, while the best-looking models can be extravagantly expensive and complicated to use. However, Transcend’s DrivePro 10 instantly impressed us. The dinky, 40-gram device has diminutive dimensions of just 58 x 36 x 23mm (plus a protruding lens) meaning it’s almost half the size of most of the market’s smaller models. The mount is also miniscule and…

$239, www.dji.com/au No longer do you need to struggle with fiddly clasps on gimbals to mount and retrieve your phone. DJI’s brand new OM 4 – or Osmo Mobile 4 – solves that problem by using magnets to hold your smartphone to the gimbal arm, saving you time and reducing missed opportunities. The magnetic clamp – which expands to fit your device – attaches to your handset with a strong and satisfying click, and feels very stable and secure, even with a plastic case on. And only a forceful tug will get your phone off. You also have the option of attaching your handset with an adhesive magnetic ring holder that ships with the gimbal. It’s a PopSocket lookalike that sticks to the back of your phone, though it adheres…

The world is in the grip of a new age of conflict. Where once ships, planes, tanks and soldiers did battle to further the goals of their own nations, now sophisticated cyber attacks are the new weapons of choice. Countries are using hackers to target power grids, financial markets and government computer systems of rival nations, all with potential results that are every bit as devastating as any bullet or bomb. The idea of using tech to pilfer information goes back a long way, as far back as 1834, in fact, with two French brothers – the Blanc brothers – who used to earn a living trading in government bonds. They found a way to get ahead of the competition by bribing a telegraph operator to include deliberate mistakes in…

REQUIRES You’ll need a MacBook, MacBook Air or MacBook Pro YOU WILL LEARN Where to find your battery’s condition status and how to make it last longer IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes GENIUS TIP In System Preferences > Users > Login Items, disable apps that automatically run at startup — and unplug any USB devices you’re not using. Battery life is the Achilles heel of any laptop and, while Apple has made huge strides with batteries, there’s always room for improvement. That’s why it introduced an iPhone-style Battery Health feature in macOS 10.15.5, although you’ll only see it if your laptop has Thunderbolt 3 ports: older Macs don’t have the necessary hardware. Battery Health monitors your battery temperature and its charging patterns, and it optimises charging to make your battery…

There are few things more galling than seeing a pair of stereo speakers huddled together on a bookshelf, surrounded by trinkets and electronics, looking under appreciated and having their talents go to waste. While we’d hope that nobody reading this feature is quite in that situation, it isn’t always obvious what you should do in order to get the best possible sound from your speakers – no matter whether they’re brand new or you’ve had them for a while. It’s a lot to do with experimentation, and all speaker manufacturers will have suggestions to guide you with their own designs. But there are some simple steps that will set you on the right path to audio enlightenment. While we can’t hold your hand through the set up and positioning of…