Viewsonic VX2880ML

Mark discovers those customers Viewsonic's new 4K screen is going to impress

The number of monitor makers that includes 4K offering in their ranges is expanding rapidly, and ViewSonic has joined their ranks with the VX2880ml.

Its VX series consists of primarily consumer focused products. However, I can see this particular design being favoured by business users who want high-resolution media presentations and use CAD/ CAM applications.

Visually, this is an attractive design, with a narrow bezel on all sides and a somewhat quirky two-part metal stand. Those not wanting to use that support can utilise the VESA 100 mount on the back.

New year’s revolution

You’ve read about how triple-A will define your next year - now find out why Xbox One’s indie lineup could end up putting all that in the shade

There was a time, a few years back, where even the most casual observer could tell you what 'indie game' meant: "It's like Mario, but the story's probably about the creator's folks getting divorced, or the outbreak of SARS or something." Thanks to legions of mistyeyed 16-bit enthusiasts, each as eager as the last to prove that the medium could serve to offer better stories than 'kill a lizard, kiss a woman', the retro, 2D, plaintive platformer certainly had its time in the sun - not least on Xbox 360. Think back to the very best of XBLA and you'll find games that took a single well-worn genre and warped one piece of its make-up into an unfamiliar shape - Braid (mechanics), Fez (perspective), Super Meat Boy (difficulty) and Limbo (colour) all pulled this trick. And it was a great one, proof that the ingenuity of creators more interested in challenging players than indulging them could be successful (and, yes, profitable - an inside source told us Jonathan Blow could afford to build an actual time machine, which he did and now uses to fly to his detractors' births and shout at their parents about the importance of a solid education in philosophy).

SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive 32GB

Mark reviews a storage device that confronts all his expectations

It's not often that this gnarled reviewer finds a device that I'd almost class as magical. But the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive is almost that, and threw many of my initial expectations out of the window in short order.

Handling it for the first time it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to deduct that this is a nicely made, slightly large by modern standards, USB flash memory device.

The review model has a 32GB capacity, but that's easily modifiable, because the Connect is actually a mobile caddy for a micro-SD card that you can easily remove and replace, should you want more space.

How to be a tech guru

The ancient art of solving any computer problem

Expert’ is a relative term – by which I mean it’s a term that our relatives use. “Ask Luis, he’s the computer expert,” my mother-in-law will say, to anyone who

will listen. I’ve spent more than twenty years fixing other people’s problems, so I’m used to being called an expert, but the reality is that every family has its own expert.

To qualify, you just need to be the youngest adult in the room that owns a PC. Sooner or later, your grandma or your uncle or your sister-in-law will mention that their laptop is broken or iTunes keeps crashing, and you’ll feel guilted into taking a look at it. Whether or not you ultimately manage to fix it makes no difference; you’ll still be the computer expert. After all, you’ve just spent a frustrating Sunday afternoon downloading drivers or booting in and out of Safe Mode, so you must know what you’re doing.

Block annoying pop-ups forever

Most browsers now block pop-ups automatically, but stopping them in programs, apps and games isn’t as obvious Robert Irvine explains how it’s done

Block ads in software using Ad Muncher

Millions of web users use Adblock Plus (adblockplus.org) to filter online ads and pop-ups. and you may even be familiar with uBIock (bit.ly/ublock360), which we’ve recommended several times this year. But effective though they are, both these tools rely on your browser to be running, which means ads can still reach your PC via other means.