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82 Articles

Whatever you do, don’t buy our editor a smartwatch for Christmas

Sometimes I hate technology with all my might and whatever is left of my soul. If I were to crystallise this into one piercing needle of hatred, it would be directed at notifications. Meaningless, pointless, endless and always stupid notifications. And if there’s one device that epitomises this most detestable of modern scourges, it’s the smartwatch. Because every single smartwatch in the world – and there is no grey here – is making our lives worse. Not only your life; my life too. When I go out for a drink with a friend, there’s nothing worse than them glancing down at their wrist mid-sentence to check a notification on their watch. They pause the sentence, realise the message isn’t important, and then attempt to pick up the thread. But I’ve…

Whatever you do, don’t buy our editor a smartwatch for Christmas

Cracks appear in the walled gardens

Five years ago, it would have been hard to imagine that the maker of Fortnite would become the biggest threat to Apple and Google. But a series of court and regulator victories in both the EU and the US means Epic Games is now arguably the most potent risk to the business model of the mobile duopoly. In the EU, Apple has already been forced to offer third-party app stores on iOS – albeit in the most grudging, inconvenient way possible – and allow app makers to use their own payment systems. Now a Californian judge has ruled that Google must do likewise with Android, among a host of new conditions placed on the company. Google is, naturally, appealing. There’s even talk of the US Department of Justice seeking to…

Cracks appear in the walled gardens

Get ready for 6G… by 2030

Still struggling to get even a faint whiff of a 5G signal? Well, you might be saying the same about 6G in as little as five years’ time. CCS Insight’s annual round of technology predictions makes several educated guesses about developments in 6G. The firm estimates that lead operators will be ready to roll out 6G in 2030, and that it will be a cleaner, less complex rollout than the mish-mash of standards that the “damaging” 5G rollout has delivered. The company also predicts that, despite calls for regional standards, there will be a single global 6G standard. Not that operators will wait for that standard to be settled before they start using the term in their marketing. CCS forecasts that at least one operator will start using empty phrases…

Get ready for 6G… by 2030

The Darktrace leading to government

Briefing PC Probe Exclusive investigations into technology practices. Email probe@pcpro.co.uk if you have a story When the American software investment firm Thoma Bravo completed a whopping $5.3 billion takeover of Cambridge-based security firm Darktrace in October, it raised a few eyebrows. Darktrace – co-founded by the entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who died when his yacht sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily in August – was accused of financial irregularities, similar to those that dogged Lynch’s Autonomy. Booking hardware sales as software and using resellers to inflate sales figures were only two of the allegations levelled at Darktrace (tinyurl.com/363darktrace), all of which the company denied. Then its CEO resigned in the middle of the takeover talks, only to become Keir Starmer’s new investment minister a few weeks later. Thoma…

The Darktrace leading to government

Darktrace’s top table and its links to Autonomy

The links between Autonomy and Darktrace were manifold, with dozens of Autonomy staff going on to work for the security firm, including several senior executives. Poppy Gustafsson, CEO of Darktrace until September and described as one of the company’s co-founders, was previously a corporate controller at Autonomy. While there’s no suggestion Gustafsson was involved in any criminal activity, court documents reveal she was involved in Autonomy’s financial dealings. For example, one of the accusations levelled at Autonomy by HP was that a Q3 2009 earnings call “amounted to a pack of lies”, with HP specifically questioning the amounts that Autonomy had claimed to invest in R&D (tinyurl.com/363judgment). When cross-examined during the 2022 civil case brought by HP, Gustafsson told the court that a $2.5 million R&D figure attributed to a…

Darktrace’s top table and its links to Autonomy

5 things we learned from Lenovo Tech World ’24

Lenovo uses its annual Tech World event to showcase its latest technologies, but don’t imagine laptops or PCs. This year in Seattle, its theme was “Smarter AI for all”, and while we saw the debut of one new ThinkPad (see “Hard news”) there was far more talk about AI in the cloud. And partnerships. Which is why the first thing we learned was perhaps the most bizarre: AMD and Intel are working together. 1. x86 ain’t dead yet AMD and Intel announced they were going into partnership at Tech World. Well, almost. The companies simultaneously posted about the all-new “x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group” at the same time that Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger took to the stage. “Some have said, well, you know, is the x86 done?” he said. “Well, I’ll…

5 things we learned from Lenovo Tech World ’24

Lenovo Tech World isn’t the place to go if you’re after gadgets, but Lenovo showcased two pieces of hardware this year. The first is frankly a little bizarre: the Lenovo AI Buddy. It’s a concept device – and I doubt it will be more than that – which places a circular screen on top of a Lenovo mini PC. You then ask it questions, as you would an Amazon Echo, to access information stored locally and around the world. And it has blinking, cartoon eyes. Let’s move on to something more serious, which is the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition (pictured below). This 14in convertible features Intel’s Core Ultra 200V processors, so expect excellent battery life, and packs the usual high-quality components you’d expect from a ThinkPad X1…

PREMIUM LAPTOPS Asus Zenbook S 14 OLED Staggering battery life for £1,750 from scan.co.uk Asus gives Intel’s “Lunar Lake” family a debut, pairing a Core Ultra 9 288V with a 72Wh battery to produce a laptop that lasts almost 20 hours on a charge. What’s more, this 1.2kg machine looks (and feels) the business. REVIEW Issue 362, p46 Apple Mac Book Air 13in (M3) Both the 13in and 15in MacBook Airs impress for speed, styling and battery life, but the 1.2kg 13in Air wins out of the two for its sheer portability. From £1,299 from apple.com REVIEW Issue 356, p54 Apple MacBook Pro 16in (2023) The M3 chips give the MacBook Pro series a boost in games with no sacrifices elsewhere, so you just have to grapple with the big…

Art theft in the modern world

Dick Pountain is editorial fellow of PC Pro. You can see six of his abstracts at tinyurl.com/363abstracts and hear his Kaprekar tune at tinyurl.com/363kaprekar Email dick@dickpountain.co.uk When I’m not writing this column – which let’s face it is most of the time – I perform a variety of activities to keep me amused. Apart from walking, cooking, reading, listening to music (live and recorded) and playing guitars, I have a couple of computer-based “hobbies”. Namely making computer-generated music and computer-generated pictures (non-moving). I recently restarted work on my Python-based computer composition system Algorhythmics – which I described back in issue 306 – after a four-year rest. What inspired me was a YouTube video about the Indian mathematician D R Kaprekar and some interesting numbers he discovered, so I set up…

Art theft in the modern world

Ten years of WFH has taught me a lot

Byline: Nicole Kobie is PC Pro’s Futures editor. She’s not joking about the naps. We all need more naps. @njkobie I used to really love going into the office: PC Pro is a fun group of people, my commute was a doddle, I lived in a small flat so it was nice to go anywhere else, and most of all, I was young. Alas, that hasn’t been the case for some time, and ten years ago I was given the opportunity to go freelance. That’s a euphemism, but I was delighted – I needn’t leave my house, I could travel whenever I wanted, and nap every day, while still doing the work I love so much. What more could you want from life? In those ten years, what have I…

Ten years of WFH has taught me a lot

Google’s lost: call off the search party

Barry Collins is worried he’s becoming something of an AI fanboy. Send human contact to barry@mediabc.co.uk. @bazzacollins If you read the news on p10, you’ll see the US Department of Justice is plotting novel ways to tear Google asunder. How best to hobble Google? Leave it be. It’s doing a stand-up job of sinking the business all by itself. A huge proportion of Alphabet’s revenue comes from Google search. In Q3 2024, about 57% of Alphabet’s $77 billion revenue came from search – down from the 80% or more it used to be, but still far more than YouTube, cloud or any other revenue streams. To put it plainly, search is the business they don’t want to screw up. Yet screwing it up is precisely what they’re doing, predominantly at…

Google’s lost: call off the search party

Readers’ comments

Speak up With the recent poll on the use of smart speakers and the previous article on home automation I feel that there is a big miss in some of these things, and I only hope we can get better. As a husband of a wife who is disabled, I can see that there are bits that don’t link up. Yes, you can turn the lights on, or a socket, but when it comes to adjusting the devices the automation stops working. Can you turn the toaster up to ten, change the channel on the TV, turn the volume up and down, turn on the hairdryer? I assume you can if you buy new equipment – that is, a new toaster, TV or hairdryer – but where are the devices…

Readers’ comments

Prompt response As part of your “AI wants your job!” feature (see issue 362, p26), in the box on p32 under the heading “Prompt like a pro”, there is a statement in large text: “You’ve got to give it tight instructions on how you want it to behave.” How true. I recently solved a major problem with a web page using a coding AI site. This was my first attempt at using AI, and it was an interesting if long process, and my CSS skills are very basic. Through ignorance I started out giving it vague instructions along the lines of “Fix this problem”. Unsurprisingly, it supplied a rubbish answer. However, as I began to be more specific with what the problem was, an interesting conversation developed. One that over about…

BRANDS YOU CAN TRUST

We’re so used to glancing at star ratings on websites when deciding whether or not to make decisions, it’s almost become second nature. It’s the modern shorthand for “what do other people think?”, but the trouble is that you don’t know who those people are. Some may be genuine, but others were given the products for free – and some will simply have been paid to write a positive review. PC Pro has always offered a different route, basing our reviews on our own tests and our knowledge of the sector. But every year we do something that wouldn’t otherwise be possible: we ask thousands of people about their buying experiences. Not whether the product turned up on time (unless it’s part of our analysis of online retailers), but what happened…

BRANDS YOU CAN TRUST

BEST PC MANUFACTURER

WINNERS CHILLBLAST, SCAN HIGHLY COMMENDED APPLE, PCSPECIALIST While you can glean a lot about a company from the table alone – whether for Best PC Manufacturer or any of the other categories – sometimes you need to hear direct from people to fully comprehend what makes it stand out. And for Scan, joint winners of this year’s award, it’s not merely about speed or reliability, but customer service. “Scan are amazing!” wrote Benjamin Harris, echoing many others’ exact same sentiments. “Their customer support is fantastic and any problems they are very quick to help.” Although we thought this brief comment from Rishen Raja also says a huge amount about the pride it has in its machines. “Great experience working with Scan,” he said, “[and] amazing cable management!” It’s the speed…

BEST PC MANUFACTURER

BEST LAPTOP MANUFACTURER

WINNER APPLE HIGHLY COMMENDED MICROSOFT, SAMSUNG If you’re looking for a laptop brand you can trust, it’s hard to look past Apple. It sits at the top of the charts for reliability, speed, battery life and customer support – little wonder that 98 out of 100 MacBook buyers would stick with the brand with their next purchase. One aspect stands out for Phil Asquith. “The [MacBook’s] battery life is unbelievably good compared to a Windows machine, lasting well over a week on a charge and used every day.” A telling remark if you look down the battery life column, where you’ll see that all the Windows laptop makers lag behind for satisfaction – something we expect to see slowly improving over time, now that AMD, Intel and Qualcomm have belatedly…

BEST LAPTOP MANUFACTURER

BEST TABLET MANUFACTURER

WINNER APPLE HIGHLY COMMENDED SAMSUNG If we needed to sum up people’s thoughts about iPads in one response, it would be this: “The new 11in iPad Pro M4 is an amazing piece of kit, but very expensive and overkill for daily tasks,” wrote Robert Barr. “Nevertheless, I do not regret upgrading and enjoy using it.” And this begrudging love for Apple’s incredibly expensive but also supremely high quality tablets, along with an unparalleled selection of apps and accessories, ran through our survey. What’s more, iPads last: “Will be purchasing a new one soon as this one is nine years old with the original battery,” said Andrew Alton. But if Apple thinks it can sit back and relax it need only look at the Smartphone category, where it comes second to…

BEST TABLET MANUFACTURER

HOW YOU DECIDE THE WINNERS

Forgive us, for we say this every year, but PC Pro doesn’t decide the winners of the Technology Excellence Awards: you do. It’s thanks to thousands of readers taking part in our detailed survey, across three months, that we can generate the detailed tables you see on these pages. Fundamentally, we aim to gauge your levels of satisfaction with the companies whose products you buy. When it comes to printers, how satisfied are you with print quality? Or the reliability of your broadband? How happy are you with the photos your phone produces? We then crunch the figures to create the percentage scores you see in the tables, The maximum score a company can receive is 100%, where a reader declares themselves to be “very satisfied” with, for instance, customer…

HOW YOU DECIDE THE WINNERS

BEST NAS MANUFACTURER

WINNER QNAP HIGHLY COMMENDED SYNOLOGY The NAS category is dominated by two big beasts of the industry: QNAP and Synology. Synology took the crown in 2023, but it’s been wrested back by QNAP this year, with Synology taking the consolation of a Highly Commended award. QNAP beat its rival in every category in this year’s survey, with customer support offering the widest margin between the two. An 89% satisfaction score for support is backed up by every single one of the QNAP customers we surveyed saying they would be happy to buy from the company again. We can see from the comments that many readers are deciding between the two rivals when choosing a NAS. “QNAP seems to produce higher spec NAS devices for the same money as Synology,” said…

BEST NAS MANUFACTURER

BEST ROUTER MANUFACTURER

WINNERS DRAYTEK, UBIQUITI HIGHLY COMMENDED FRITZ!BOX DrayTek is becoming a fixture at the top of our router manufacturer award. There are no chinks in its scores, but a 96% satisfaction rating for reliability is the score that stands out. Reliability is everything when it comes to a broadband connection, and that’s the main reason DrayTek remains at the top of the pile. “They just work and work well,” said Martin Packer of DrayTek’s routers, a sentiment echoed by Simon Reynolds. “I’ve been using DrayTek comms equipment for many years, very happy with them,” he said. Anyone who listens to the PC Pro podcast will know of Jon Honeyball’s fondness for Ubiquiti and its “networking gear for grownups”, and readers make that distinction, too. “The UniFi ecosystem is brilliant but is…

BEST ROUTER MANUFACTURER

BEST ONLINE RETAILER

WINNER PRINTERLAND HIGHLY COMMENDED SCAN Given how much grief printers cause, it’s staggering that any retailer with “printer” in its name can top a customer satisfaction chart. But Printerland is clearly a winning destination for PC Pro readers, with an overall score of 98% sealing the win in one of the most competitive categories. Strong scores across the board propel Printerland above last year’s winner, Broadbandbuyer.co.uk and perennial PC Pro award botherer Scan. Claire O’Kane was impressed with both Printerland’s website and customer service. “Brilliant website with an extra-detailed filter system that allowed me to tick off all my listed needs and narrow the choice down to a few printers,” she said. “Ordered around 3pm and it arrived by the next day. First time I’ve used this company and would…

BEST ONLINE RETAILER

WINNER 20I HIGHLY COMMENDED ZEN 2 0i makes it two years on the spin as your favourite web host, once again seeing off perennial favourite Zen. If you’re going to outperform Zen, you simply have to get your service spot on, and a 95% satisfaction rating for 20i’s customer support is indicative of a company doing just that. In fact, there’s not a weak spot in 20i’s scores, with reliability, value for money and speed all scoring 94% or better. “I cannot say enough how good 20i have been over the many years I have used them, they are exceptionally good in every area,” said Stephen Bruckshaw. “I have been using hosting companies for over 20 years and of all the many hosting providers I have tried, no-one comes close.” Zen…

BEST CLOUD STORAGE

WINNER BACKBLAZE HIGHLY COMMENDED AMAZON S3 Backblaze sits atop the PC Pro cloud storage table for yet another year, finishing head and shoulders above the competition. Compare its scores to big-name rivals and it’s immediately obvious that sometimes buying from a specialist in a market pays dividends. Reliability is surely the metric everyone pays attention to when it comes to online backup, and Backblaze’s 96% satisfaction score is untouchable. It beats everyone else for value for money, too, which is a very compelling combination. Steven Smith was at a bit of a loss when it came to rating Backblaze’s customer service, though. “Their system is so easy to use that customer service has not been necessary for me,” he said. There’s also lots of praise for Backblaze’s pricing structure for personal…

BEST CLOUD STORAGE

BEST BROADBAND ISP

WINNER ZEN Despite this being an era of huge upheaval in the broadband market, some things remain constant – such as Zen’s place at the top of our broadband ISP league. One of the so-called altnets (or smaller fibre providers), Hyperoptic, was nipping at Zen’s heels last year. Alas, this year we didn’t receive a sufficient number of responses from any of the altnets to put them in our final rankings (we need at least 25 responses for them to be included), but note this: one of the altnets in this year’s survey outscored Zen in several categories. It would have been a shock result had it won outright, because Zen has now claimed this award for 21 consecutive years, making it the most successful company in the history of…

BEST BROADBAND ISP

BEST MOBILE DATA PROVIDER

WINNER 1PMOBILE HIGHLY COMMENDED SMARTY We say it every year, but when it comes to satisfaction with mobile data providers it’s the virtual networks that outshine the very networks they’re piggybacking on. In fact, this year’s top two are the same pair that collected the gongs in 2023: 1pMobile and Smarty. 1pMobile has improved its scores since last year’s winning performance, now being the only mobile network to meet the much-prized 90% overall score threshold. As you might expect from a network that trades on the “UK’s lowest PAYG rates” of 1p per minute, 1p a text and 1p a MB, it scores most highly for value for money. Paul Rendell said he uses 1pMobile “for personal [use] as well as three phones used for a non-profit that use mostly…

BEST MOBILE DATA PROVIDER

BEST PHONE MANUFACTURER

WINNER ONEPLUS HIGHLY COMMENDED APPLE, HONOR You might expect Apple to dominate phones as it does for laptops and tablets, but while it still gains a Highly Commended award, not everyone is happy. “Unimpressed that after just a year I discovered a (manufacturing) fault with the camera and Apple would not replace,” wrote Ashley Harcourt. Add on regular complaints about price and you wonder at the astonishing 98% of people that would buy again. In contrast, OnePlus customers are delighted with the value offered by their phones. And Martin Schwaller keeps coming back for more: “I’ve had a number of OnePlus phones over the years; all are superb.” And it’s not just about value. “I’m in a low signal area and reception on my OnePlus phone has been outstanding,” Roy…

BEST PHONE MANUFACTURER

BEST SMARTWATCH MANUFACTURER

WINNER XIAOMI HIGHLY COMMENDED APPLE, GARMIN Let’s not beat about the bush here: Xiaomi wins the Best Smartwatch Manufacturer award for one key factor: value. Michael Crooks described this succinctly as “excellent”, while Paul Vincent said his was a “good budget smart band [that] tracks everything I need and the battery life is approximately one week with heart-rate monitor on auto”. And Xiaomi’s battery life results – together with 97% of people saying they would buy a Xiaomi smartwatch again – are another key reason for its victory. Apple, on the other hand, lost its top position due to the relatively poor perception of its watches’ battery life. “The battery life is much shorter than my wife’s Huawei and yet they do much the same job,” said Liam McQuade. However,…

BEST SMARTWATCH MANUFACTURER

BEST PRINTER MANUFACTURER

WINNERS BROTHER, XEROX Brother has had its name printed on this award for more than a decade now, but this year it’s been forced to share the spoils with Xerox. Brother is renowned for its reliability. The Verge infamously writes a printer roundup that contains the same advice every year: just buy the Brother printer that everyone else does. And with a 91% reliability score, you can see why people stick with the brand. But Xerox pips it in our survey for both customer support and print quality, meaning the pair will have to take home a gong each, with both landing overall scores of 90%. John Sinclair is on his third Brother printer and says he has “always been satisfied” with the brand. Stuart Dearing backs him up, adding…

BEST PRINTER MANUFACTURER

BEST MONITOR MANUFACTURER

WINNERS ACER, BENQ, IIYAMA Categories don’t come much tighter than this one, with four points separating the award winner from the unfortunate Samsung, which sits bottom of the table despite decent scores. In fact, we had such a tight race that our joint winners were only a razor’s width ahead of the chasing pack. Our three winners each had different factors propelling them to the top. For Acer, it was the 98% of customers who said they would buy again. BenQ topped the table for reliability and image quality, while Iiyama won for its all-round consistency and customer support. This consistency stretches over the years, with Iiyama also earning the crown in 2023. “I have owned a succession of Iiyama monitors from the days of CRTs and have never been…

BEST MONITOR MANUFACTURER

PRODUCTS OF THE YEAR

LAPTOP OF THE YEAR WINNER ASUS ZENBOOK S 14 OLED HIGHLY COMMENDED ASUS PROART PX13 It’s a double win for Asus this year, as it relentlessly hammers out great designs based on the latest CPUs. “The ZenBook S 14 OLED was the first I tested to use Intel’s second-gen Core Ultra chips,” said editor-in-chief Tim Danton, “and if this is a sign to come then we’re in for a treat in 2025. Super-slim, stylish and staggering battery life for an OLED laptop.” And Asus once again delivered for AMD and its Ryzen HX 300 chips, extracting amazing amounts of power from the CPU to create a creative 13in workhorse in the ProArt PX13. BEST BUSINESS SOFTWARE WINNER 3CX V20 HIGHLY COMMENDED VERITAS BACKUP EXEC 23 3CX keeps on winning our…

PRODUCTS OF THE YEAR

RASPBERRY PI WHICH BOARD IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

The Raspberry Pi is the best-selling British personal computer of all time. Launched in 2012, it surpassed the ZX Spectrum’s lifetime sales in just three years, and it’s remained on an upward trajectory ever since. The platform has also expanded considerably. There are now five major generations of the Raspberry Pi, plus compact Zero variants and the ultra-lightweight Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller board – not to mention a wide range of peripherals, including keyboards, mice, cameras, touch displays and much more. While it’s great to have so many options, it can be also be a bit daunting. If you’re new to the world of Raspberry Pi, you could be forgiven for not knowing where to start. Do you need a full-sized board? How much processor power do you need, and…

RASPBERRY PI WHICH BOARD IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

RASPBERRIES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT – INTRODUCING THE PIMORONI PICO PLUS 2 W

As well as making its own boards, Raspberry Pi has recently started supplying its RP2350 processors to third parties, opening the door to new variations on the Pico format. The first such product to arrive is the Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 W (tinyurl.com/363pimoroni) – a board that’s the same size as the Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico 2, and fully compatible with its code and peripherals, but with some useful extra features. In place of the Pico’s outdated micro-USB connector, it uses a USB Type-C connection for power and programming, and comes with a much more generous 8GB of RAM and 16GB of flash storage. Most importantly, it also features onboard Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. This makes the Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 W an ideal choice for simple networked tasks, such…

RASPBERRIES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT – INTRODUCING THE PIMORONI PICO PLUS 2 W

GETTING KITTED OUT

WHERE CAN I BUY MY PI? Raspberry Pi doesn’t sell directly to the public, but there are several authorised retailers online, such as Pimoroni (pimoroni.com) and The Pi Hut (thepihut.com). While they all sell the main Pi boards, their prices can differ slightly, and they offer different ranges of third-party accessories, so it’s worth shopping around. DO I NEED TO BUY A POWER SUPPLY? Raspberry Pi produces its own range of power adaptors, but since the boards are powered by standard USB connectors you may already own a suitable power supply. Note that the newer models (which use USB Type-C power connectors) have particular power requirements: the official Raspberry Pi 4 power supply is rated at 15W, while the Pi 5 one is rated at 27W. DO I NEED TO…

GETTING KITTED OUT

OUR TOP 5 RASPBERRY PI ADD-ONS

PIBOW COUPE CASE FOR RASPBERRY PI 3, 4, 5 PRICE £7.20 from tinyurl.com/363coupe These colourful cases comprise several layers of transparent plastic, with convenient holes for heatsinks and fans if required. RASPBERRY PI TOUCH DISPLAY PRICE £58 from tinyurl.com/363touch This touch-sensitive 7in screen has an 800 x 480 resolution and makes use of Raspberry Pi OS’s built-in drivers for ten-finger touch and onscreen keyboards. (Requires an adapter cable for connection to Raspberry Pi 5.) M.2 HAT+ PRICE £11.50 from tinyurl.com/363hat Upgrade your Raspberry Pi 5 with support for M.2 peripherals, including NVMe drives. (Won’t work with earlier boards.) ACTIVE COOLER FOR RASPBERRY PI 5 PRICE £4.90 from tinyurl.com/363active Avoid throttling by cooling your board in day-to-day use. RASPBERRY PI CAMERA MODULE 3 PRICE £26 from tinyurl.com/ 363camera Available in regular…

OUR TOP 5 RASPBERRY PI ADD-ONS

Bag a software bargain

Norton 360 Premium for £19.99 (10 devices for two years) pcpro.link/norton360 SAVE 89% We’ve negotiated a killer deal with Norton. No subscriptions, just a one-off bargain price of £19.99 compared to the regular £179.99 charge. That buys you two years of cover from the powerful Norton Security suite across ten devices. And because it’s the Premium version, you get a host of extra tools. There’s 75GB of cloud storage for secure backups, plus the full version of Norton Secure VPN, both to protect your identity and provide a way of watching British TV while abroad. Norton Parental Control provides tools to see exactly what your kids are up to on their various devices, and you also get GPS location monitoring for Android and iOS. To round things off, Norton Password Manager…

Bag a software bargain

PICK THE PERFECT STYLUS

If you don’t regularly use a computer stylus, you might imagine they’re only relevant to artists – an impression reinforced by the fact that they’re often sold as optional add-ons to tablets, rather than essential components. But try one out and you might well find that the stylus is a transformative way to interact with a computing device, especially a tablet. Holding it in your hand, like a pen, is much more comfortable than prodding and swiping on a hard glass screen with your fingers and thumb – and it allows you to be far more precise in your interactions, so it’s particularly handy for apps with lots of buttons, or tapping in text on a small-scale virtual keyboard. Needless to say, though, you don’t have to use that keyboard…

PICK THE PERFECT STYLUS

Intel Xeon W-2500 workstation processors

Looking for a particular past review? Visit our index at pcpro.link/index SCORE PRICE Xeon w7-2595X, £1,681 (£2,017 inc VAT) from scan.co.uk If you read our recent workstations Labs (see issue 361, p78), you’ll know that AMD lorded over Intel thanks to its latest Pro and non-Pro Threadripper chips. Intel has finally released a new family of workstation chips – the Xeon W-3500 and W-2500 series – that it hopes will redress the balance. It’s based on Intel’s 4th Generation Xeon Scalable “Sapphire Rapids” architecture, and we put a sample CPU through its paces to see if AMD has anything to worry about. To be precise, Intel sent us the Intel Xeon w7-2595X. This is the top of the 2500-series range, with 26 cores that all support Hyper-Threading, delivering 52 threads.…

Intel Xeon W-2500 workstation processors

PCSpecialist Torpedo Ultra R

SCORE PRICE £1,499 (£1,799 inc VAT) from pcspecialist.co.uk/reviews When I invited PCSpecialist to submit mini PCs into our Labs (see p78), it suggested the Azena R (see p93) and the Torpedo Ultra R. In my haste, I headed to the Corsair website, saw the cute-looking picture of the 2000D RGB AirFlow chassis and that it was described as “mini” – and entirely failed to notice that the “mini” referred to miniITX. Nor did its 458mm height sink in. Yes, in comparison to most tower PCs a 200 x 271mm footprint is small, but compared to the rest of the systems in our group test it’s an absolute monster. Having tested the Torpedo Ultra R over the course of a week, though, I still think it’s cute. And unlike most PCs,…

PCSpecialist Torpedo Ultra R

Dell Latitude 7455

SCORE PRICE As reviewed, £1,274 (£1,529 inc VAT) from dell.co.uk This is the second business laptop we’ve tested to use a Qualcomm Snapdragon X chip, following on from the excellent debut by Lenovo’s ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 (see issue 360, p56). While many businesses will be nervous of rolling out Arm-based laptops, it’s hard to argue with the reward of true all-day battery life. Here, the Dell lasted 15hrs 54mins in PCMark’s Modern Office test. When I used it for a working day, it still had more than 40% of charge by the time I clocked off. Until the Intel Core Ultra 200V series (see issue 362, p46) came along, you couldn’t hope for that sort of life from a laptop based on an x86 processor. It’s fast, too. Geekbench…

Dell Latitude 7455

Samsung ViewFinity S80UD

SCORE PRICE 27in, £268 (£322 inc VAT) from uk.insight.com Every Samsung monitor we’ve reviewed previously has had a consumer focus – maybe it’s an Odyssey screen aimed at gamers or a Smart Monitor that doubles up as a TV. Here, though, we have two ViewFinity screens that have businesses in their sights: the S80UD on this page, the S60UD opposite. The main difference between the two is resolution. The S80UD is a 4K panel with 3,840 x 2,160 pixels, while the S60UD makes do with 2,560 x 1,440. This is why the S80UD is more expensive, despite having a lower refresh rate of 60Hz compared to 100Hz. To confuse matters further, there are different screen sizes within the range (24in, 27in and 32in), and the 32in models use VA technology…

Samsung ViewFinity S80UD

Samsung ViewFinity S60UD

SCORE PRICE 27in, £236 (£283 inc VAT) from uk.insight.com For all the reasons I mention on the opposite page, it’s easy to get confused by Samsung’s naming conventions. In particular, anyone looking for a modern USB docking monitor should make sure they buy from the S60UD range rather than S60D. You even benefit from an RJ45 port here, but oddly it’s positioned at the right-hand side along with the trio of USB-A ports and 3.5mm jack. That’s not great from a cable management perspective. All measurements in default profile Samsung doesn’t include speakers with the S60UD, but a 100Hz refresh rate makes this a better choice for gamers than the S80UD. The question is whether you mind having 2,560 x 1,440 pixels rather than 3,840 x 2,160, which means 109…

Samsung ViewFinity S60UD

Philips 27B2U6903

SCORE PRICE £375 (£450 inc VAT) from uk.insight.com How do you make your monitor stand out from the crowd? It used to be enough to add a USB-C port and an Ethernet connector, but turn to the previous spread and you’ll see two 27in business monitors that include both features for around £300. Philips is upping the ante, with Thunderbolt 4, a 2.5GbE connector and a bunch of features that it claims “level up anyone’s workplace”. But let’s cover the basics first. This is a 27in monitor with a 4K panel based on IPS technology. Along with a 100W Thunderbolt 4 input, which is compatible with any laptop that has a USB-C port, you have a pick of inputs: two HDMI 2, one DisplayPort. This monitor also supports daisy chaining,…

Philips 27B2U6903

SCORE PRICE 128GB, £242 (£290 inc VAT) from meta.com Meta is determined to bring VR and AR to the masses. Along with slashing the starting price of the 512GB Quest 3 (see issue 351, p56) from £620 to £470, it has introduced the Quest 3S as a sub-£300 alternative. Despite this price, it shares many of the premium features that earned the Quest 3 a PC Pro Recommended award. Most notably, Meta sticks with the Snapdragon XR2 Gen2 processor. This means that while this is a budget headset, you won’t get budget gaming experiences. Red Matter, where you explore one of Saturn’s moons, ran so smoothly I felt as if I was truly on this extraterrestrial world. And Fruit Ninja, which requires fast controller swipes to simulate sword strikes, also…

SCORE PRICE Stereo, £42 (£50 inc VAT) from logitech.com We live in a wireless world, but there are times when wires make sense. No faffing around with Bluetooth or worrying about battery levels; plug the device in and it will just work. That’s what the Logitech H570e headset is all about: available with your choice of USB-C or USB-A connectors, and with a version certified for Teams, this is a simple headset meant for easy rollouts across an office floor. There’s also a “mono” version, with only one earphone, that costs £10 less. Still, paying either £40 or £50 remains expensive for a wired headset. So I ordered a pair of Logitech H111 headphones for £15 from Amazon to see what extra I was getting for my money. One big…

Your bonus software

Total value this month £131 Audials One 2025 SE With so many sites offering streaming video and music, finding what you want to watch or listen to can involve a lot of tiresome jumping from one service to another. Audials One 2025 SE is the solution: it’s a one-stop-shop for all of your streaming media needs, a single application that lets you listen to music, podcasts and online radio stations, and watch TV and movies, all within one handy interface. When you want to listen to a particular song, just search for it and Audials One will scour its catalogue of online resources to find it for you. You can download tracks in MP3 format, so they’re always available for offline listening – and this is also possible with music videos,…

Your bonus software

Apple iPhone 16

SCORE PRICE 128GB, £666 (£799 inc VAT) from apple.com/uk It’s often hard to get excited about a new iPhone when there’s a better equipped Pro version launched alongside it. But this year’s model has a surprising amount in common with its upmarket sibling: it gains the action button that was previously exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro (see issue 351, p62), and it also uses the same new camera controls as the iPhone 16 Pro (see overleaf). Even better, it’s in line to receive the full set of Apple Intelligence features when they arrive. Could the standard iPhone be the smart buy of this generation? ■ Displayin’ around The iPhone 16 is the same size as the iPhone 15 (see issue 351, p62), with a 6.1in screen; for an extra…

Apple iPhone 16

Apple iPhone 16 Pro

SCORE PRICE 128GB, £833 (£999 inc VAT) from apple.com/uk Like the regular iPhone 16, the Pro model comes in two versions: one with a 6.3in display, and the ginormous 6.9in iPhone 16 Pro Max. If you’re a believer that big is beautiful then flip the page for our full review of the Max, but I’m here to tell you that the iPhone 16 Pro is all the phone most people will need. The first thing that’s new about the iPhone 16 Pro is a larger screen. It’s only 0.2in bigger than last year’s model, but somehow it feels more luxurious. Perhaps it’s because the bezels have also become thinner, so the case is barely any larger than the iPhone 15 Pro (see issue 351, p62), and still comfortable to use…

Apple iPhone 16 Pro

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max

SCORE PRICE 256GB, £999 (£1,199 inc VAT) from apple.com/uk If you want the maximum iPhone for your money, the 16 Pro Max is your boy. Yes, the iPhone 16 Plus is large, but the Pro Max has it beaten: with a massive 6.9in display it’s the biggest iPhone Apple has ever made. As well as an outsized screen, the Pro Max has a wodge of extra storage. The base model comes with 256GB, so while the £1,199 price is steep, it’s only £100 more than the equivalent iPhone 16 Pro. To round things off, the iPhone 16 Pro Max also claims the best battery life of any iPhone – and our testing backs that up. In our continuous web-surfing test, the iPhone 16 Pro Max lasted for an insane 18hrs…

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max

Apple Watch Series 10

SCORE PRICE 46mm, from £358 (£429 inc VAT) from apple.com/uk It’s ten years since Apple unveiled its first smartwatch, and the anniversary brings an impressive update. For a start, whether you opt for the compact 42mm model or the chunkier 46mm one, the screen area is now 9% larger than on the corresponding Series 9 (see issue 351, p69). That’s 30% more display space than the original Apple Watch; if you buy the 46mm version you actually get slightly more screen than the Apple Watch Ultra 2 (see issue 351, p68). The display technology has been updated, too. The always-on display now refreshes once per second, compared to the once per minute of the Series 9. And this is Apple’s first watch with a wide-angle OLED panel, which is 40%…

Apple Watch Series 10

TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper 5G

SCORE PRICE £233 (£280 inc VAT) from argos.co.uk TCL’s Nxtpaper phones stand out from the borg crowd thanks to their screens. If you haven’t had the chance to see them, they’re almost paper-like, with a matte finish and subtle, textured coating. And whether found here or on TCL tablets, the provide a welcome break from the shiny monitor, laptop or phone screens we spend most of our lives gazing at. Yet another clever feature is that you can switch to a finish resembling E Ink screens – as found on Kindles – by switching to Ink Paper mode. This is great for reading books and even long web articles, cutting out the noise from extra colours. Or, if you want to fully commit, you can activate TCL’s Max Ink mode.…

TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper 5G

Samsung Galaxy S24 FE

SCORE PRICE 128GB, £541 (£649 inc VAT) from samsung.com For years now, Samsung has been releasing its “Fan Edition” phones several months after its flagship models. The idea is to offer customers who don’t want to spend £800+ on a phone an alternative, even if it doesn’t pack all the premium features. Last year’s S23 FE was disappointing, but this year Samsung has the balance just right. The Galaxy S24 FE receives the same level of attention as Samsung’s flagship models. That means it features the same glass-meets-metal trim that the series is known for, complete with the same IP68 water- and dust-resistance rating. On the back, the triple cameras prominently protrude with each lens outlined by a thick metal bezel. It adopts the same design language as the flagship…

Samsung Galaxy S24 FE

When it comes to mini PCs, there are a handful of major players. The most famous name is Asus, which took on responsibility for developing Intel’s NUC range in October 2023. Then come mini PC specialists Geekom and Minisforum, with the latter responsible for many of the brands you’ll see advertised on Amazon. Beelink is another mini PC specialist – which, for whatever reason, didn’t wish to send in a system to this month’s test. And MSI has just entered the frame with its first NUC design, with the promise of more to come. At first glance, there’s little these manufacturers can do to lift themselves from the pack. The vast majority of mini PCs follow a similar pattern: a square-ish footprint with each side measuring 110mm to 150mm wide,…

Key things to look for when buying a mini PC

■ How big is mini? There’s no formal definition of a mini PC. When we invited PCSpecialist to submit a system into this month’s group test, it sent both the Azena R (see p93) and the Torpedo Ultra R (see p52). But the Torpedo proved to be ten times the size – in terms of volume – as any other system in this Labs, which is why we moved it to the main Reviews section instead. However, there is an argument that it’s a mini PC, as it uses a microITX motherboard and one of Corsair’s smallest chassis. For the sake of our sanity, we decided to draw the line at three litres. That’s still small enough to tuck a PC behind a monitor or sit on a stand. But…

Key things to look for when buying a mini PC

Asus NUC 14 Pro+

SCORE PRICE £1,006 (£1,207 inc VAT) from icubes.co.uk While MSI has muscled in on the NUC action with its own design (see p92), Asus – which signed an agreement with Intel last year to keep developing the line – is still the first place loyalists will go when looking to update their Intel-branded NUCs. It’s also where we expect to see the latest technology, especially so with the NUC 14 Pro+, which sits at the top of the Asus range. It’s not to be confused with the plain NUC 14 Pro, which comes in slim and tall variations and only supplies a maximum of 40W to the processor rather than 65W here. But don’t expect Intel’s all-new second generation Core Ultra inside: the 14 Pro+ was announced in January 2024,…

Asus NUC 14 Pro+

SCORE PRICE £749 (£899 inc VAT) from geekom.co.uk In a group test of tiny PCs, the Geekom A8 is the smallest of them all. Its footprint very nearly fits into the palm of your hand – think beer mat and you won’t be far wrong – and at 37mm tall it’s also the shortest system here. But what’s truly incredible about this mini PC is that it’s also one of the quickest on test. That speed comes from an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS processor, which delivers in every way. Single-core speed? With a peak of 5.2GHz it’s always near the top of the charts. Multicore power? It may not have as many threads as some Intel rivals, but as all of its eight cores are geared for speed it actually…

Geekom Mini IT13

SCORE PRICE £666 (£799 inc VAT) from geekom.co.uk If the number of reviews on its website is any guide, the Mini IT13 is Geekom’s biggest-selling mini PC in the UK. And almost all of those 100+ reviews give it five stars. So why is it gaining a mere four stars from nasty old PC Pro? We shall try to explain. Perhaps the biggest reason is that time has moved on. Geekom released the IT13 a year ago, and while the Core i9-13900H remains a fine processor, it falls behind the Ryzen 9 inside both the Geekom A8 and Minisforum Venus UM790 Pro. Examine the graphs on p94 and you’ll see that there isn’t a single speed test where the Mini IT13 beats its rivals, unless you count its Lexar NM7A1…

Geekom Mini IT13

Geekom XT12 Pro

SCORE PRICE £583 (£699 inc VAT) from geekom.co.uk Geekom has so many mini PCs in its range that it’s hard to identify one from the other by name alone, but “XT12 Pro” provides clues. First, the 12 indicates that it includes 12th generation Intel chips – Geekom sells the XT13 Pro with a 13th gen Core i7-13620H (£649) or i9-13900H (£949) – while the Pro tells you that it ships with Windows 11 Pro rather than Home. Physically, the two are identical, and whichever model you opt for you’ll enjoy top-quality build quality. A pleasing honeycomb finish stretches to the sides and across the bottom, which also keeps its weight down and aids airflow. In general use it’s extremely quiet – almost silent – but you will notice the fans…

Geekom XT12 Pro

Minisforum AtomMan X7 Ti

SCORE PRICE £691 (£829 inc VAT) from store.minisforum.uk While Minisforum makes dozens of conventional mini PCs, it also likes to experiment with new designs. These often appear under its high-end AtomMan brand, and the most striking feature of the X7 Ti is its 4in touchscreen. Download the software – a clumsy process – and it gives you an at-a-glance summary of CPU, GPU, RAM and SSD usage and temperatures. Touch the time and a large analog clock appears, or you can use it to switch between energy-saving, balanced and performance modes. I kept it in the latter during testing, as the Core Ultra 9 185H inside deserves to be unleashed. With 32GB of DDR5 RAM, it was no surprise to see the AtomMan challenge for top position in the CPU-based…

Minisforum AtomMan X7 Ti

Minisforum Neptune HX100G

SCORE PRICE £741 (£889 inc VAT) from store.minisforum.uk Is the Minisforum Neptune HX100G really a mini PC? It certainly won’t fit into everyone’s notion of such a thing, with a comparatively monstrous footprint of 205 x 203mm. Add a 69mm height and that means its 2.87l volume is three or four times that of its rivals; to put it in all-important chocolate terms, the HX100G is very nearly the size of a Quality Street tin. As this PC is made by mini PC specialist Minisforum, though, we guess it’s a mini PC by definition, and unlike the PCSpecialist Torpedo Ultra R (see p52) we allowed it into this Labs. And it immediately became clear that the extra volume made a huge difference, because it allows for more powerful components, along…

Minisforum Neptune HX100G

Minisforum Venus NAB9

SCORE PRICE £324 (£389 inc VAT) from store.minisforum.uk The Minisforum Venus NAB9 is the cheapest mini PC in this group test, but you wouldn’t know that from looking at it – or using it. That price includes a Core i9-12900H processor, which may be two years old but is still a high-performing choice: while scores of 2,358 and 10,819 put it near the bottom of our Geekbench 6 graph, that’s only because it’s in such high-flying company. The NAB9’s scores would have been considered excellent two years ago, and with 20 threads split across six P-cores and eight E-cores it remains a fine choice for demanding tasks. It’s more than capable of light gaming, too. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is now a few years old, but it demands far…

Minisforum Venus NAB9

Minisforum Venus UM790 Pro

SCORE PRICE £458 (£549 inc VAT) from store.minisforum.uk Judged on looks alone, there’s every chance the UM790 Pro would win the award for world’s most boring mini PC. The only glimmer of excitement on this square black box is the green LED that lights up to show you it’s working. But then you might notice the “USB4” sitting above the pair of USB-C ports, and this opens up options such as 10GbE networking and external GPUs; you can even power this mini PC through them. All four USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports are relegated to the rear, kept company by a relatively mundane pair of HDMI ports and a single 2.5GbE connector. Things become more interesting on closer inspection. Pick up the UM790 Pro and you’ll appreciate its solid all-metal…

Minisforum Venus UM790 Pro

MSI Cubi NUC 1M

SCORE PRICE £458 (£549 inc VAT) from scan.co.uk When Asus and Intel signed on the dotted line in October 2023, agreeing that Asus would take on development of the NUC line, it’s romantic to imagine someone in MSI HQ banging their fist on the table, commanding the lawyers to find a loophole: surely it could create NUCs, too? And so, apparently, it can, and if it can keep up this quality of workmanship we’re more than happy for MSI to join the NUC party. It takes a more ecoconscious approach than its rivals, emphasising the fact that 42.9% of its plastics are PCR and gaining EPEAT Silver status for the range. It helps that MSI uses a mix of solar panels on its factory roof and buys energy from renewable…

MSI Cubi NUC 1M

PCSpecialist Azena R

SCORE PRICE £499 (£599 inc VAT) from pcspecialist.co.uk/reviews It may not look like it, but the PCSpecialist Azena R has much in common with the MSI Cubi NUC 1M. This is a mini PC squarely aimed at businesses, and more particularly it’s designed to attach to the rear of a monitor; it even integrates a mounting plate with four screw holes to make this process easier. Our only surprise was to see it ship with Windows 11 Home, but that’s easy enough to upgrade to Pro. You can also sit the Azena R vertically on the supplied stand, which takes advantage of its slimline design. At 1.4 litres it’s larger than a typical mini PC, but it’s one of the slenderest here at 38mm (although the backplate adds around 5mm)…

PCSpecialist Azena R

Endpoint protection 2024

Client devices, or endpoints, can be the weakest link in any data security strategy. It’s not enough to rely solely on perimeter security solutions such as firewalls and UTM appliances, since flexible working practices mean that many devices are now outside traditional network borders and beyond their protection. Regardless of whether they’re using workstations, laptops or mobiles, a geographically dispersed workforce can present businesses with serious security challenges. Cybercrime is now a well-established and very profitable industry, and endpoints are frequently targeted because they’re less likely to be properly protected and can offer an easy way into the company network for juicier pickings. Endpoint protection software is the answer. It can keep workers safe from harm regardless of whether they’re in the office, at home or on the road. There…

Endpoint protection 2024

Sophos Intercept X Advanced

SCORE PRICE 100-199 users, £48 exc VAT each per year from enterpriseav.co.uk Sophos’ business endpoint protection solutions deliver an incredible range of features for the price, all accessed from one of the smartest cloud management portals around. Its portfolio starts with the Intercept X Advanced on review, which delivers complete workstation and server endpoint protection. The XDR version adds endpoint detection and response (EDR) services, or you can hand all the hard work over to Sophos with the managed detection and response (MDR) option. Everything Sophos has to offer is managed from its Central cloud portal, which has had a major redesign that makes it even easier to use. All the main menu options have been moved to the top for faster access, and you can create a range of…

Sophos Intercept X Advanced

Vipre Endpoint Security Cloud

SCORE PRICE 25 devices, from £500 exc VAT per year from vipre.com SMBs seeking uncomplicated endpoint protection will find Vipre’s Endpoint Security Cloud (ESC) a worthy contender. This cloud-hosted service is easy to deploy and is great value, costing far less than most of the competition. Security features haven’t been compromised in the search for value. ESC offers file, web and email anti-malware scanners, AI behavioural analysis to counter zero-day threats, web content filtering, a client firewall, intrusion detection and a patch service for third-party apps. The only downside is its limited platform support: Vipre offers endpoints agents for Windows and macOS but nothing for Linux, Android or iOS devices. We found the ESC web portal easy to navigate and used its deployment tool to email links for the agent…

Vipre Endpoint Security Cloud

WatchGuard EPDR

SCORE PRICE 101-250 seats, £39 exc VAT each per year from guardsite.co.uk WatchGuard’s EPDR (endpoint protection, detection and response) cloud-hosted service offers an impressive range of security features but stands out for its unique delivery methods. Its five protection layers include a zero-trust application service that analyses and classifies every application being run on endpoints, and it only blocks those it doesn’t know about. Available in fixed-term and subscription-based plans, EPDR is good value and includes web content filtering, removable device controls, encryption, Windows patch management and data control tools. It’s managed from the same cloud portal as WatchGuard’s Firebox UTM appliances, wireless access points and ThreatSync XDR service. If you want to try it out before committing, WatchGuard now offers a non-intrusive endpoint risk assessment service that evaluates and…

WatchGuard EPDR

WithSecure Elements Endpoint Security

SCORE PRICE 100-499 devices, £37 exc VAT each per year from withsecure.com WithSecure offers an impressive range of endpoint protection services, and it’s been very busy integrating them all into a single unified cloud portal. Previously, there were separate EPP (endpoint protection) and EDR (endpoint detection and response) modules, but the Elements Endpoint Security (EPS) solution on review amalgamates them together under one extended detection and response banner. The EPS portal is easy to navigate, and you’ll find a lot more new features are in evidence. Accessed from the upper right menu, WithSecure’s Luminen delivers AI-powered reporting services and, with one click, presents a detailed summary of security events. You don’t have to search for new features and updates either, as next to the Luminen icon is another one that…

WithSecure Elements Endpoint Security

Iperius Remote Professional 4.7

SCORE PRICE 10 concurrent connections, £30 per month exc VAT (billed yearly) from iperiusremote.com Licence plans for business remote support products can be complex, but Iperius Remote cuts through the smokescreen as you simply choose the number of concurrent connections you want. Everything else is included, with all business plans supporting an unlimited number of devices and endpoints along with attended and unattended installations. The Small plan costs £7 per month when billed yearly and supports two concurrent connections, while the Medium plan ups the session count to five, enables a multi-user mode plus mass deployment tools and costs £17 per month. We’ve reviewed the Professional edition, which starts at around £30 per month for ten sessions and includes a corporate rebranding service using customised clients. This can also be…

Iperius Remote Professional 4.7

SCORE PRICE Diskless/4GB, £638 exc VAT from broadbandbuyer.com Qnap offers a wide choice of entry-level SMB NAS appliances, and all bar one have a common feature: they’re powered by Amazon. Or more precisely, chips by Annapurna, an Amazon company. Both the four-bay TS-432X and six-bay TS-632X continues this tradition, with a 4-core 2GHz Annapurna Alpine AL524 SoC inside. The TS-632X is competitively priced, and that value is enhanced by the Alpine’s integral network services, which offers dual 2.5GbE multi-gigabit and 10GbE SFP+ fibre ports. Memory starts at 4GB of non-ECC DDR4, and the single SO-DIMM slot supports up to 16GB. No internal M.2 NVMe SSD slots are provided, but the appliance’s spare PCI-E Gen3 expansion slot supports Qnap’s QM2 dual-slot cards and plenty of network adapters. Just bear in mind…

Protect your business from AI-powered security threats

In the past, whenever artificial intelligence came up in the context of computer security, the discussion would tend to focus on the so-called Skynet scenario: the “machines are taking over” stuff from the Terminator films. Now AI is an everyday reality, and Judgment Day hasn’t (so far) come to pass. What we are seeing, however, is a new wave of insidious and widespread AI-powered threats. Every business needs to be aware of how the new technologies make online exploits more dangerous than ever, and even open up new vectors of attack. ■ Phishing and phakes One of the most powerful applications of AI is in the arena of phishing. Hitherto, that term has mostly referred to dodgy emails that appear to come from a legitimate source, but once you add…

Protect your business from AI-powered security threats

Another initialism – lucky us. So is this a product, a service or what? We’re talking here about the broad category of “content management systems” – online platforms that serve as both a central repository for content and an overarching organisational tool for managing how and when each item appears on your website. The most popular CMS is WordPress, but there are many other options, both free and commercial. Is this really necessary? Can’t we just upload pages as needed? It’s fair to say that some of what a CMS does simply automates processes that are perfectly doable by a human. But there’s nothing wrong with that: it saves time and reduces the risk of mistakes. And as websites have got ever bigger and more complex, it’s become unrealistic to…

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“The more I have to do with UK telcos, the more broken their systems seem to be”

It has been a month of bits and pieces. Nothing dramatic, but a whole host of small changes, some of which are still outstanding. Let’s start with the annual ritual, which is the arrival of the new iPhone and Apple Watch. I keep myself to a fairly rigorous tick-tock regime for these upgrades. I went from iPhone 13 Pro to 15 Pro Max, missing out on the 14 release. I was going to skip the 16 Pro Max as well, but two factors coincided: first, a bunch of technical improvements that were all relevant to work; the second more personal. I’ll cover the three technical reasons first. The iPhone 16 Pro is Apple’s first device to support Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be). So far, I haven’t been impressed by anyone’s 802.11be Wi-Fi…

“The more I have to do with UK telcos, the more broken their systems seem to be”

“I make no apologies for my pedantry; Microsoft should know the names of its own products”

One of the many joys of writing for this fine publication is getting to talk about computer problems that trip up real PC users. If you think about it, every edition of PC Pro follows a technology timeline. At the front is the latest news, where we learn about bleeding-edge developments that will eventually filter down to this part of the magazine, Real World Computing, where we reflect on how these developments affect our lives, before Nicole’s Futures section tells us what’s going to happen tomorrow (but not in a “here’s the winner from the 2.15 at Wincanton tomorrow” way). As stories pass through these stages, it allows us to revisit them as they contort and grow from a simple startup idea into a dominating global brand that improves humanity…

“I make no apologies for my pedantry; Microsoft should know the names of its own products”

“It was the dawn of e-commerce, and we were trying to apply offline law to the new online world”

Following the recent Argos TV debacle, companies venturing into the new world of e-commerce should review their process for contracting over the web. Argos advertised its televisions on its website for £2.99 instead of £299, and was deluged with orders, which it is now reluctant to fulfil. Was there a valid sales contract or not? Stay tuned for the new Electronic Commerce Directive from the European Union. This will clarify the moment at which an electronic contract is concluded, which could impact the outcome of similar cases in future. With Y2K just around the corner, it is also vital to check that your IT outsourcing contracts address business continuity issues as we move into the year 2000. While you’re about it, you should build in additional provisions relating to the…

“It was the dawn of e-commerce, and we were trying to apply offline law to the new online world”

“Stupid security is as bad as no security, at least from a business reputation perspective”

I have no problem with putting a stop on a payment while the bank fraud team contacts me to check it’s legitimate. That keeps my money safe. Sure, it can be a little time-consuming going through recent payments and answering all the “has anyone asked or is forcing you to make this payment” type questions, but it’s an understandable and effective fraud prevention method when so many such scams exist. For similar reasons, I don’t have a problem with jumping through hoops to set up a banking application to authenticate I am who I say I am. Unless, that is, it’s rigidly implemented to the point of stupidity: stupid security is as bad as no security, at least from business reputation and customer retention perspectives. Here’s a case in point,…

“Stupid security is as bad as no security, at least from a business reputation perspective”

“Getting workers to do simple jobs in the 16th century was not much different from the 21st”

If you’ve read William Gibson’s visionary cyberpunk novels, you’ll remember the idea of the “oracle”. I won’t go into the back story, but this static unit was mounted low down in a wall, in a back alley, equipped with nothing more than a red laser that scanned the pre-millennial brickwork within line of sight. Now take a look at my picture below of an exterior mounted fibre termination box in a sparsely trafficked alleyway somewhere in the City of London. Disappointingly, there’s no scanning, baleful visible laser. Not even a power LED: modern fibre devices don’t all need electricity. Still, seeing it immediately made me think of Gibson’s universe. Putting this aside, there was something about the copious, overlapping loops of black exterior fibre, wrapped around and around the Openreach…

“Getting workers to do simple jobs in the 16th century was not much different from the 21st”

Missed call Whatever happened to the Acorn Communicator?

Acorn is best known for the BBC Micro, and for good reason. This iconic series of computers found a place in schools in the early 1980s as a way of teaching children how to code, and it was a key component for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. But while Acorn grew during this period (its profits reaching £8.6 million in July 1983, having been just £3,000 four years earlier), the home computer market soon went through a turbulent time. As a consequence, having already sensed a need to turn things around, Acorn’s co-founder Christopher Curry began looking to target business users with new machines and identified a potential gap in the market. It led to the production of what was the only 16-bit machine that Acorn ever made – a…

Missed call Whatever happened to the Acorn Communicator?

How do we know how smart AI really is?

As AI becomes increasingly competent at answering emails, making funny pictures and solving complicated science problems that have long stumped us humans, it raises a question: how smart is it really? And we’re not sure how to answer that yet. The goal of companies such as OpenAI isn’t to ease the lives of office workers – though that draws investors such as Microsoft, hence the sudden focus on productivity tools – but to build artificial general intelligence (AGI). This is defined in a multitude of ways, but OpenAI describes it as “highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work”. Alongside AGI, we have ideas such as human-level AI, expert AI and superintelligent AI. All have slightly different definitions depending on who you listen to, but the point…

How do we know how smart AI really is?

ON SALE On sale 5 December Features Gifts for geeks If people keep asking you what you’d like for Christmas, this feature – showcasing our favourite gadgets and must-buys from 2024 – is the one for you. Features Instant Expert: Photopea Who needs Photoshop? We explore the advanced features of Photopea, a free online graphics editor that includes AI processing and RAW image support – and runs on any device. Features Run your home network like a pro Darien Graham-Smith explores how businessgrade gear can make your home Wi-Fi faster, more secure and more manageable. Labs Tablets We test the latest tablets from all the main manufacturers, including Amazon, Apple and Samsung, to see which ones live up to their promises and what misses the mark. Retro Happy 30th birthday, Sony…

Microsoft is doing more harm to Arm than good, argues Jon Honeyball

You know that sinking feeling you get when something is not quite right? That nagging doubt that it shouldn’t be like this? It was like that when I read that Qualcomm has cancelled its Snapdragon X developer kit, a desktop Mac mini-like box designed for developers to create and test apps for Windows on Arm (WoA). It had been announced months ago, orders were taken, and then there was silence. Followed by deadlines being pushed back. A handful of units were finally delivered, then a notification went out: “The Developer Kit product comprehensively has not met our usual standards of excellence and so we are reaching out to let you know that unfortunately we have made the decision to pause this product and the support of it, indefinitely.” Why does…

Microsoft is doing more harm to Arm than good, argues Jon Honeyball

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