10 Of The Best Podcasting Apps

Sarah Dobbs finds all the apps and programs you need for everything podcast-related

It’s hard to pinpoint the moment when podcasts went from being a niche interest to a standard part of the media landscape. Was it when President Bush’s radio broadcasts got an online feed in 2005? When Ricky Gervais launched The Ricky Gervais Show in 2006? When Kevin Smith launched his SModcast in 2007? It might even have been as recently as 2014, when Sarah Koenig’s Serial became the new thing you had to keep up to date with in order to keep up with the conversation in the pub.

Pre-Built Vs Self-Made

Mark Pickavance discusses the various merits of buying a PC either in bits or pre-assembled

I’m come clean up front and admit that, with the obvious exception of laptop systems, I’ve built all my computers from scratch. My reasons for doing that are numerous, but given the job I’ve got, it would seem to fly in the face of logic to buy them pre-made, with all the parts in them chosen by someone else.

If I had to put a number on it, I’ve probably built somewhere between 50 and 100 machines, so I’ve got the exercise down to a fine art that I can complete rapidly and with a high degree of success.

TP-Link Archer VR900

A fast Wi-Fi router for ADSL lines

A couple of years ago, the prevailing Wi-Fi standard moved on from 802.11n to 802.11ac. It’s theoretically faster, uses the less crowded 5GHz band, and has better range, so you should get decent reception over a wider area. Meanwhile, the ADSL broadband connections available over the phone lines to our homes moved up to VDSL, allowing internet service providers (ISPs) to run fast fibre-optic cables to the cabinet in the street and just use the copper wires for the last few yards.

Remembering… Sierra On-Line games

We recall a ground-breaking, but often risqué developer from the early PC

Hands up those of you old enough to remember King’s Quest? What about Space Quest? Or the Leisure Suit Larry games? These three game series for the early PC are some of the most iconic. Show a screenshot to anyone who’s 40 years old or more, and they’ll be able to tell you the difference between Police Quest and Space Quest, and how rubbing berries on yourself is a good thing to avoid being eaten by a swamp monster.

Eva – The real video social network

Social networking is everywhere these days, and here’s one to look into

Social media is big. Mind bogglingly big. In fact it’s estimated that over two billion people currently use some form of social media. That’s at least one in every four of us worldwide. And it’s growing too, at a rate of around two to three hundred million users per year.

We now have the ability to share virtually every aspect of our lives as an image, video or just a string of text. Whether sharing all of it is a good thing or not is up to you to decide, but you can’t knock the potential for bringing friends and family together and sharing life’s experiences at the instant they happen.

It’s little wonder that UK developer Forbidden Technologies has released the latest in social media networks.

Synology DiskStation DS116

Synology follows up the excellent DS115 with something even better

Looking through the specs of the DS116 was a curiously déjà vu moment for this reviewer. Having just covered Synology's DS216j, lots of components in it are remarkably similar. It uses the same processor, a Marvell ARMADA 385 88F6820 dual-core ARM chip, except it runs at 1.8GHz on the DS116, and not the 1GHz of the DS216j. That’s potentially 80% more performance, and because this is a single-drive solution, that power should be more focused.

Corsair M65 Pro RGB FPS Gaming Mouse

Corsair enhances its M65 mouse with even greater precision

My current mouse is the Corsair Katar, a design I’ve come to truly appreciate for its unerring simplicity. By definition, the Corsair M65 Pro RGB FPS gaming mouse is a decidedly more complicated solution. There is a price implication to that, so is it worth the extra cost?

The headline feature of this mouse is its sensor. Most gamers like a mouse sensor with 2000dpi, but the M65 Pro’s is capable of a staggering 12,000dpi.

Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4-2400 32GB Kit

Crucial unleashes a memory monster of mythic proportions

As a seasoned technology reviewer I’m rarely shocked these days, but the arrival of this memory kit from Crucial truly blew my mind on numerous levels. I’ve covered Ballistic Sport products before, and as before, these are turned out marvellously.

My review modules came in with heat spreaders in a rich red colour, with silver highlights and a digital camo motif. You can also get these in white or grey, if that better suits your system.

Zyxel Personal Cloud

Zyxel enters the NAS market with personal cloud aspirations

Zyxel is one of those companies that effectively takes a known concept, rendering it into an affordable and accessible solution. And that sums up the Zyxel Personal Cloud (NAS326), for those in the market for a small, cheap, yet powerful dual-drive NAS.

As neither Western Digital nor Seagate made this, it’s sold without pre-installed hard drives, making it perfect for anyone who owns a spare 3.5” SATA drive and needs centrally stored media or backups.

Seagate Mobile HDD 2TB

Seagate play devil’s advocate for those comparing speed and capacity

Seagate has something of a battle on its hands with laptop users, because once you’ve used one with an SSD, it's difficult to go back to using a mechanical hard drive. But as its latest laptop storage designs show, it still has one card up its sleeve and that’s capacity.

The ST2000LM007, to give its full title, is available in either 1TB or 2TB capacities and also as a straight drive (reviewed here) or in encrypted or encrypted/FIPS flavours.

Connecting laptop to TV

Force your laptop to detect your TV, make the image fit and fix audio problems

Picture on TV is distorted

Because the resolution of laptop screens varies from those on high-definition TVs, whenever you connect one to the other the resulting picture on your TV can often look stretched or distorted. The edges of your Windows desktop may even be cut off altogether – a problem known as overscan.

Ultimate Ears Boom 2

A Bluetooth speaker for your summer holiday

This tough wireless travel speaker (available in several colours) would be great on holiday. Knock it into a swimming pool and the IPX7 waterproof rating means it should survive up to a metre deep for half an hour, although you won’t be able to hear it so well.

Iiyama G-Master GB2888UHSU Gold Phoenix

4K you can actually afford

This is a monitor aimed at gamers. For just over £300, it gives you a big 28in screen with a huge 3840x2160 pixels. ‘4K’ panels don’t get much cheaper, even at smaller sizes – and smaller sizes do less justice to all those dots.

‘What I wish I’d done’ before my laptop was stolen

Having your laptop stolen is an appalling experience, especially if you haven’t prepared for the worst. After finding out the hard way, Jane Hoskyn explains how to limit the damage

A few weeks ago, someone walked into my house one Saturday morning while I dozed in bed, then walked out with my Windows 8.1 laptop and my wallet.

I did hear footsteps while half-asleep, but thought it must be my housemate getting ready for work. “Hey, is that you?” I shouted, peering downstairs. Silence. Nothing. So I resumed my doze and assumed I’d been dreaming.

Huawei P9

Are two cameras better than one? Yes

Remember when we all thought it was silly to put a camera in a phone? Now our phones all have two cameras, and apparently that’s still not enough: this year’s trend is three. Tire LG G5 includes a separate wide-angle lens to give you a choice of framing, which is useful. Huawei has done something different: the P9’s two cameras work together to take pictures with more dynamic range.

Apple MacBook 12in (2016)

Could you be converted to Apple’s laptop?

When we tested Apple’s brand new MacBook last year, with its super-slim case and edge-to-edge keyboard, we praised its lightweight design and high-resolution screen, but we weren’t so sure about its reliance on a single USB Type-C port for charging, wired networking, external displays and accessories. The same laptop now has more powerful processors inside and comes in a new colour (rose gold).

Hidden side effects of removing software

Getting rid of unsafe programs from your PC can cause problems. Mike Plant reveals the pitfalls of removing unwanted software and how to avoid them

Warning: side effects may include headaches, sickness and drowsiness. We’ve all seen this kind of advice on medication packaging, yet we take our medicine nonetheless – in the hope that the benefits outweigh the risks.

It’s a similar story when it comes to uninstalling certain PC programs. It’s all too tempting to get rid of unsafe and unwanted software without a second thought, but the side effects can include compatibility problems, files you can’t open, online videos you can’t play, and incomprehensible error messages.

Here we explain just some of the drawbacks of removing potentially harmful programs and how to keep your PC running smoothly without them.

LG G5

The first upgradable smartphone

In the old days, computers were made up of a bunch of widgets slotted together. When a component failed or a better one came along, you could undo a screw or pop open a flap and do a quick swap. Desktop PCs are still like that, which is why they’re not extinct, despite being unattractively bulky. But nowadays we carry more processing power in our pockets than we used to have on our desks, and one way engineers have achieved that miniaturisation is by abandoning ‘modularity’: the principle that parts should be independent of the whole.

Amazon Kindle Oasis

The best ebook reader yet

Two hundred and seventy pounds? For an ebook reader? We had to doublecheck to make sure we hadn’t misread the info or been transported back to the 1980s. These days, Amazon itself sells a full-blown all-purpose colour tablet computer for 50 quid. Is it seriously expecting people to pay more than five times as much for a gadget that just shows text in black and white?

What’s Your Type?

If you have to look at your keyboard every time you type a letter, then these touch-typing programs and games are what you need

Whether you’re a journalist, a programmer or just a school pupil doing coursework, having the ability to touch type can be a real gamechanger. Of course, what you write matters more than how you write it, but if you’re not wasting time with an inefficient two-fingered search-and-peck typing system, then that’s time you can better spend on research and fine-tuning your work. It also means there’s less of a gap between when you think something and when you type it.

Is This The End For Fake Reviews?

Not every online review can be trusted. Some companies write their own – or pay someone else to say nice things about them. The days of fake reviews may be numbered, though. Sarah Dobbs investigates

Online reviews can be incredibly useful, and reading them has become an indispensable part of shopping, no matter what you’re buying: reviews of clothes can tell you if sizes tend to run big or small, reviews of washing machines can tell you if they’re reliable or tend to make a lot of noise, reviews of cars can tell you how fuel efficient they tend to be, or whether the upholstery stains easily… You get the idea.

How To Get The Best Deal On A New PC

Here are a few tips to ensure you don’t pay too much...

If you simply don’t have the time or enthusiasm to build a new PC for yourself, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with buying a pre-build instead. Indeed, while in the past it may have been cheaper to construct a system on your own time, and hunting around for the best deals on parts a way of saving serious amounts of cash, these days the price difference is often bordering on negligible. Indeed, in many cases, pre-builds can work out even cheaper than the parts inside them would be at retail, thanks to the bulk-rate discounts manufacturers can get. There’s no doubt you surrender a fair amount of control over the components your system, but is it worth it for the amount of money you can save?

To help you get the best deal on a pre-build system, we’ve assembled our best hints and tips for buying full systems – everything from where to look to what to look for. Follow this advice and you’ll end up with a PC you can be smug about – if not for what’s in it, then for how much it cost!

Memory And Storage Deals

Give your PC a quick and easy boost with these upgrades…

When building a system, it’s a common mistake to overlook the memory and storage components in favour of faster processors and graphics cards. But you might be surprised to learn that slow memory and inadequate storage can cause significant bottlenecks, the likes of which no faster processors will be able to remedy. No matter how fast the data can be processed, it still has to be moved to a processor – from the storage, via the RAM.

Think of it as being a bit like a coal furnace on a train: a bigger furnace will burn faster, giving more speed, but eventually you reach a point where you can’t burn coal any faster. What you need is someone to shovel coal quicker. This, roughly, illustrates the problem with many systems. Slow hard drives and small RAM capacities mean that the fastest processors are forced to idle while waiting for data to be transferred. And that’s why we’ve come up with this selection of memory and storage recommendations for you to help speed up your system.

Graphic Card And Monitor Deals

Give yourself a visual treat, with this fine selection of goodies…

It’s remarkable how much improving the look of your system can make it feel like something new and exciting. You might not have changed the internals much, but your desktop is the main point of contact you have with a desktop computer. Upgrade that and it’ll seem as though everything old is new again.

This means two things: finding a new monitor and ideally a graphics card to go with it. Both are expensive components, but they’re worth the money: you’re guaranteed to appreciate their performance every time you switch your PC on. In this piece, we’ve looked at the various monitors and graphics cards available to help you find some of the best deals. Follow our advice, and in no time at all, your computer is going to look better than ever!

CPU And Motherboard Deals

Getting the right motherboard and processor combination – at the right price – is key

The starting point of any system is its CPU and Motherboard combination. These two components are built to fit one another with a particular socket and chipset combination, so it makes sense to choose them both at the same time.

When choosing a CPU or a motherboard there are a whole confusing host of options open to you, all which are fairly similar in design and compatibility, but different in function and capability. To help you understand what will suit your needs best, we’ll explain which processors are good for which purposes, explain how to match them up with the right motherboard, and point you in the direction of some deals and offers that might help sway your decision one way or the other.

LawBreakers

The legendary developer talks to us about his new outlook, as we take his gravity-defying shooter LawBreakers for a spin

Cliff Bleszinski is as close to a game development rockstar as this industry has ever known. Like many of the great pop stars there have been nicknames, personas, and a sense of a creative evolution that has inspired and driven the industry he contributes to. He was of course originally Clifford Michael Bleszinski, a native of North Andover, Massachusetts, creator of The Palace of Deceit: Dragon’s Plight when he was just 17 years old and later Jazz Jackrabbit. He would go on to became the face of Gears Of War, perhaps more so than its lead character Marcus Fenix. The man we sit with now is the head of his own studio in Raleigh, North Carolina, making a brand new FPS, LawBreakers, and is referred to by his colleagues as simply Cliff.

Top 10 Photos Tips

The Photos app in Windows 10 is perfect for browsing your snapshots, sharing and editing. Roland Waddilove presents his favourite tips

1 Browse Collections

If you want to browse all your photos and see them arranged in chronological order, select ‘Collection’ in the left panel. At the top is the month, and below are photos grouped by the dates they were taken. Spin the mouse wheel to scroll up and down through the photos.

The month is a clickable link, and it displays a list of months and years. You can quickly select another month or spin the mouse wheel to scroll the list and go back several years and select a month. This is a quick way to jump to photos from years ago without having to scroll through them all.

iHealth Lite Scales

Keeping track of your weight has never been so easy

Digital technology for healthy lifestyles has moved on considerably since the old pedometer days. Now our phones can continually monitor the number of steps we’ve taken, how far we’ve ascended up a flight of stairs, how many calories we’re burning during moments of activity and rest, and all the while keep track of every detail.

Element Gaming Xenon 700 Headset

No noble gas, just great sounds

Element Gaming’s top-of-the-range Xenon 700 series headset is a wonderful thing to behold. The bare metal frame, with braided wiring and a large adjustable microphone arm all speak of a product that costs in excess of a hundred pounds. Surprisingly, though, the Xenon 700 is half that price.

Synology DiskStation DS916+

A next-generation NAS design that offers huge storage potential

With Synology’s penchant for reusing its enclosures, it’s easy to assume that what’s inside remains unchanged.

From the outside, the new DiskStation DS916+ looks almost identical to the DS415+, but internally it has more in common with the company's recent DS716+.

Zoostorm Stormforce 805

Nothing but clear skies all the way with this VR-ready PC

With the new generation of virtual reality systems now available, PC suppliers have to up the ante in terms of desktop performance to comfortably cope with the high-resolution virtual worlds delivered by the likes of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. It’s not an easy task, and there’s a fine balance between building a VR-ready system and one that’s still affordable.

Edifier Rave MP700 Speakers

A powerful portable and rechargeable Bluetooth speaker from Edifier

The latest trend for Bluetooth speakers has been smaller and smaller sizes, to the point where some of the units are about as much use as a bean can and a length of string. (If the analogy escapes you, ask your parents). Yet this latest offering from Edifier has gone in the opposite direction, with a quite large and, it must be said, heavy unit, which has a retro look more like a 1970s transistor radio. Let’s hope it delivers the depth and power its presence suggests.

Now Amazon is milking us customers

Barry Collins observes that customers are now paying for Amazon’s dominance

No business has done more to cultivate a cuddly, consumerfriendly reputation than Amazon. The company is the Ant and Dec of online retail: almost nobody has a bad word to say about it. Prices are low, deliveries are fast and when something does go wrong, Amazon usually resolves the problem without any fuss.

Best free file-compression tools

Windows can store your files in compressed folders to save space, but it doesn’t give you much choice over how it does this. Andy Shaw tests six free programs that work faster and compress your files into smaller packages

Why Your PC Is Still Slow

Many common PC speed tips actually make things worse. Wayne Williams exposes 21 mistakes that you may not realise are slowing down your system

We’re sure that regular readers of this magazine understand the importance of regular PC maintenance and are familiar with the basics, such as defragging your hard drive, deleting junk files, uninstalling old programs and so on. Following these good practices won’t necessarily guarantee you’re getting the maximum possible speed from your computer, however – there are plenty of mistakes we all make that can adversely affect how quickly and smoothly our PCs run.

In this feature, we highlight 21 common blunders and oversights, and explain how you can avoid them to give your computer a significant speed boost. Over the following eight pages, we explain how cleaning your system too regularly – or too thoroughly – can actually slow it down, and highlight common hardware-related errors you might be making that stop you getting the maximum speed out of your system. We also explain what you should be doing to make your PC faster.

Tuning With PowerShell

Use the secret Windows features. Windows 10 is more than just a beautiful interface. With PowerShell you can venture into the hidden machine space of the operating system

Dialog boxes and mouse operation – this is how Windows 10 presents itself to the average user. But if you want to dig deep into all the finesse and options of the operating system, then you should use PowerShell which will allow you to complete tasks more efficiently, automate workflows via script, manage your computer and much more.

However, you should always be careful while using PowerShell as some commands go deep into the system. Therefore, in this workshop we will demonstrate some basic functions of the command line for power users.

BenQ WiT e-Reading Lamp

BenQ’s new LED lamp gives you light, without all the annoyances

BenQ is a brand that is synonymous with desktop monitors, and lately they’ve been on a journey to ensure that users are not burdened by eye aches by introducing things like anti-flicker and anti-blue light into their products. The company is going one step further by introducing a reading lamp, which is to be used with your computers. Introducing the BenQ WiT e-Reading Lamp.

The Descent Of Twitter?

Twitter’s userbase is starting to dwindle. But the company isn’t nearing its end just yet: it can now reinvent itself and thus become an example of an industry in crisis

On its tenth birthday, Twitter was hit with a triple whammy: First, it lost five managers in the beginning of January. Then, a well-known stock market analyst advised his clients to sell their Twitter shares. But it was the CEO of Twitter himself, Jack Dorsey, who gave the worst news in the business report for the fourth quarter of 2015: in the previous quarter, two million of Twitter’s users were no longer using its service. For a sector used to perpetual growth, this is a clear signal: Twitter is going south.

LG 31MU97-B

LG has done an exceptional job with its range of 4K TVs over the last year or so. Enter the likes of Currys, and you’ll see a selection of superbly presented and technically wonderful models on offer. Has the company managed to mirror that success with its monitor range, though?

Keyboards 101

Mark Pickavance talks about the layout of keyboards and how their origins have dictated common aspects across the globe

Although never trained to do so, technically I can touch type, mostly through a disturbing level of repetition. I’m so familiar with the QWERTY layout I only get really confused if I’m presented to letters organised alphabetically, as they are occasionally in some applications and devices.

But how did we end up with the seemingly random nature of QWERTY, are their better alternatives, and how do other language speakers cope with their variants?

I have some answers, but not all of them, I suspect.

Top 10 Tips For Groove Music

Stream music from OneDrive, play music and artwork on your TV, and more with the Groove Music app in Windows 10. Here are Roland Waddilove’s best tips

1 Store Music In OneDrive

The Music folder on your PC’s disk drive is the obvious place to store music files like MP3s and other audio types, but there are advantages to using OneDrive. One of the most important of these is that OneDrive is synced across all the PCs you use, so you have access to your music library from any computer.

Hardware Security Solutions

When software isn’t enough, take your PC security to the next level…

One of the very first things any user should do when they turn on a new computer for the first time is check for security software. Before going online, it’s best to have a firewall, antivirus and anti-spyware application in place. Of course, that’s not always possible, because you probably have to go online to download these things, but the point remains the same: get your security software in place as soon as possible.

Motherboards For Amateur Overclockers

New to overclocking? Find the idea intimidating? One of these motherboards will get you started

It doesn’t matter how many times it’s discussed or explained, overclocking PC hardware is a topic that always scares some. The idea of tinkering with your PC’s internal hardware, messing with timings, voltages and other settings is something that easily scares many less-technical users off, and it’s not difficult to understand why. How many people out there are scared of messing around with their cars, even the basics? There’s just something about tinkering with something you don’t fully understand, and the technical side of PCs is a world that simply appears far too complex for some.

Remembering… Box art

David Hayward spent a lot of time looking at boxes

Computer and video game box art, or cover art, was once just as important element of game marketing as the game itself. Who cared if the game consisted of a stickman running a wire-thin strip of landscape, dodging ASCII characters? If the box art displayed something totally amazing, then the game invariably sold.

Chillblast Fusion Quartz

All you need in a desktop PC

Big PC boxes are traditionally known as ‘towers’. This one takes the term pretty literally. It could comfortably house the headquarters of a small country’s secret police. Bucking the trend for show-off neon-lit fishtank systems, there are no windows. What happens inside is the stuff of tales told by mothers to frighten their children. We shall not speak of it.

Magix Video Pro X8

Magix update its top-of-the-range video editor

VideoPro X8 is the latest version of Magix professional video editing suite. Admittedly it’s a product with a fairly hefty price, yet as our American cousins would say, it provides a lot of bang for your buck.

And for those that simply dabble with video editing or only throw together the odd celebratory slideshow, Magix offers a comprehensive range of more affordable alternatives. But make no mistake: Pro X offers as much as, if not more than, many professional editing suites, which could cost you five times as much.

Archos 70 Platinum

An inexpensive device with a great display

The 7" tablet market has grown significantly in recent months, with users much preferring more manageable devices, rather than something that’s 10 inches or more.

Archos has risen to that demand and produced an interesting range of 7" Android tablets, from the GampePad through to the top-of-the range 70b Helium. This Archos 70 Platinum comes in second to the Helium, so you can expect some pretty decent specifications.

Synology DiskStation DS216j

Synology delivers a new j series NAS box for the discerning user

I really liked the DS215j, and so I would have been rather shocked to have spurned the DS216j given that it’s remarkably similar in almost every respect. The outside is almost identical, being a minimalist exercise in high quality plastic and form-is-functionality. Synology has been using this dual-drive design for a while and evidently sees no compelling reason to change it now.

HP PageWide Pro 477dw Multi-Function Printer

HP takes inkjet printing and drags it screaming into this decade

Using inkjet technology for multi-function printers isn’t very cost effective, even if people like the quality of the output.

Up till now the answer was laser or wax thermal printing, though both have corresponding limitations in colour representation, speed and cost. What people needed was inkjetlike results but laser speed and post of ownership, if those aren’t mutually exclusive demands.

Magix Audio and Music Cleaning Lab Premium

Is this the ultimate sound and music editor?

Afew weeks ago, I reviewed the Video Audio Cleaning Lab from Magix, designed to fix and enhance any problems you have with your video sounds. Well, this latest product is the big brother of that package, so it’s quite capable of fixing the same problems, yet it can also handle a whole lot more as well. The name of the product on review is the Magix Audio and Music Cleaning Lab Premium. The Premium tag indicates that it’s the top of the range in this series, and one that includes some very sophisticated sound editing features.