Don’t sell your soul for a good review

Barry Collins is infuriated by the increasingly murky world of “customer reviews”

Nothing hurts a company like a bad review. In the years I’ve spent editing and writing for tech magazines, I’ve had tears, threats and full-on tantrums from company reps who reckon we’ve unfairly trounced their products. Reviews can make or break a product, which is why companies are increasingly reluctant to leave such matters to chance.

Companies know they can’t buy good reviews off reputable publications such as Web User. However, they can guarantee five-star verdicts on key sites such as Amazon, TripAdvisor and the various app stores if they write their own glowing reviews – or pay others to be their shills.

Recover and repair files without software

You don’t need to download a recovery tool to deal with deleted and corrupted files. Robert Irvine explains how you can find and fix them without installing anything

Recover Word documents that won’t open

There are few things more frustrating than being unable to open a file that contains important information, or finding that when you do open the document it contains a load of gobbledygook. Rather than tearing your hair out, try repairing the file using Word’s built-in recovery tools. Click the Office logo (or File if you’re using an older version of Office), then Open and locate the corrupt document. Click the arrow next to the Open button and choose ‘Open and Repair’ from the menu. If this doesn’t fix the problem, try clicking the arrow next to ‘All Word documents’ in the Open dialogue box, choose ‘Recover Text from Any File’ and select the unreadable document. Word will then convert and try to recover the text from the damaged file.

Download all your data from the web

Every time you search, shop or share content online, you leave behind a trail of personal info. Jonathan Parkyn explains how to reclaim and review data you’ve posted on the web

Download your Google search history

Google is famous for tracking our every online move. But the company also now makes it possible for you to download and review a lot of the data you  leave in your wake, including your personal search history. All you need to do is log into your Google account on the Google History site  (history.google.com), then click the cog icon in the top-right corner and select Download from the menu.

Record Anything On Any Device

Capturing your screen lets you keep its contents to edit and share. Wayne Williams explains how to record anything you see, hear and do on your PC, phone, tablet and other devices

There are lots of free tools you can use to record audio and video from the web when you’re on your PC or Mac, many of which we covered in ‘Record All Video and Radio’. But you’re just as likely to want to record something that’s happening on your phone, tablet or other device,such as a game, conversation or screencast. Fortunately, this is a lot easier than you’d think.

Maxell Digital Split Soundbar MXSP-TS1000

Andy Shaw gets a significant sound boost from an affordable, configurable soundbar

Soundbars provide a significant boost to the often disappointing sound quality you get from many flat-screen TVs. The long and narrow shape is designed to lay in front of your TV without getting in the way of the screen or taking up space around it. However, the new Split Soundbar from Maxell has an extra dimension – an ingenious mechanism that lets you convert it to a pair of upright speakers that can sit either side of your screen, clipped to the supplied speaker stands.

BT Home SmartPhone S II

Andy Shaw tests a home phone that has Android built-in, so you can browse the web, block nuisance calls and more

Mobile phones have come a long way in the last few years, with Android and iOS turning them into pocket computers, rather than simple telephones. But despite such development in their mobile equivalents, our home phones have barely changed since they went wireless with the introduction of digital cordless (DECT) phones in the early Nineties.

The BT Home SmartPhone S II is an attempt to breathe new life into the humble landline phone. It includes all the usual functions of a home phone: it can hook up to an existing cordless system, has an answerphone built-in and it will work with any standard landline. The usual keypad has been replaced by a touchscreen, but it otherwise behaves like a normal home phone, and we found the calls we made on it sounded crystal clear.