We all need a digital time bomb

Barry Collins wants our data to be deleted the moment it reaches its sell-by date

Think of the all incredible things we’ve done over the past couple of decades to reduce waste. We go to extraordinary lengths to preserve energy - meticulously sorting our rubbish into eight separate colour-coded bins to ensure it’s recycled properly; pumping the walls of our houses with hamster bedding to prevent heat from escaping; spending the first 10 minutes at home on a winter’s night in toe-stubbing, shin-cracking darkness while we wait for the energy-saving lightbulbs to warm up. And yet, in other ways, we are incredibly wasteful.

How to Hack your router

Are you using your router to its full potential? Wayne Williams shows how to use the advanced features available on many models

Most people don’t give their router much thought until it needs a reboot or they connect a new device to it. But routers can do more than simply provide you with an internet connection and they often come with extra tools and advanced features. Exactly what you can do with your router will depend on the make and model, and the ports it’s equipped with. We’ll look at some of the possibilities.

Best Free Tech Ebook

Why waste money on expensive tech ebooks when you can get lots of useful titles for free? Rob Beattie selects eight of the best free examples, which will save you more than £100

Best Virtual Private Network

Virtual Private Networks - or VPNs, for short - are clever tools and services that allow you to surf anonymously and visit websites hosted abroad that you typically can’t access from the UK. Rob Beattie rounds up six of the best.

Download Banned Apps & Software

Google and Apple love to tell you what you can and can't download. Wayne Williams ignores their petty restrictions and reveals how and where to get (safe) apps and add-ons they've banned, and software that's been discontinued

If an app has been removed from the Google Play or Apple App Store, or been forbidden entry in the first place, there’s usually a good reason. It may have been found to contain malware or offensive material, or is buggy and unstable. However, there are also many examples of Google and Apple ‘banning’ apps for self-serving reasons, such as because they supposedly undermine their business model (advert blockers being a prime example), provide direct competition to one of the company’s own tools, breach copyright restrictions or don’t meet the store’s submission guidelines.