Many potential buyers get put off by talk of limitations that applied in the early days of Chromebooks, but which no longer hold true. Sure, a Chromebook won’t run the same range of creative design or productivity apps as a Windows laptop or a MacBoo

A last-minute invite from a firm of Hungarian drone makers was just what I needed in the depths of winter. An invite made all the more intriguing by the fact this was a new company in the midst of a geopolitical area hosting the first drone war, even

Save 85% on the A List security suite £29.99 10 devices 2 years Avast Ultimate 2024 won our internet security suite Labs last month (see issue 355, p78), and we’ve managed to snag 85% off the price. That means £29.99 buys you protection, a VPN and a

Gone are the days when all Chromebooks were chunky plastic ultraportables with 11in to 13in screens. Now they run the whole gamut of laptops, from slimline 2-in-1 convertibles and detachables to more powerful gaming Chromebooks with RGB lighting and

PRICE £249 (£299 inc VAT) from oneplus.com I’d be the first to tell you that the original OnePlus Watch wasn’t worth buying. Launched back in 2021, it brought limited fitness features and a small, clunky selection of first-party apps that left us col

How fortunate I am that such a script would magically appear! One that so handily demonstrates the eternal battle been local and remote computing, when that’s exactly what I wanted to address this month. This decade, the battleground is AI. You may h

For the past few months, I feel like I’ve been living the inverse of Monty Python’s “What have the Romans ever done for us?” sketch. Every time I’ve been at a press conference where a PC manufacturer has launched a new AI PC I’ve asked the question:

I sometimes wonder about the competency of our ruling classes. I don’t mean His Maj, but rather the governmental departments tasked with keeping society going. This applies especially to the administration of private transport. I get that competition

Back in 2021, Intel made a dramatic strategic change to its business. Faced with the twin threats of companies such as Apple designing its own custom silicon, and making use of gun-for-hire foundries such as Taiwan-based TSMC to produce it, the compa

Anyone looking for replacement tech will have spotted plenty of offers for refurbished devices nestling among the traditional adverts for new products. The refurbished electronics sector was valued at $85.4 billion in 2021, according to Transparency

“Dad?” I knew by my daughter’s intonation that something was amiss. “Why is this naked lady eating a huge sausage?” I didn’t get the chance to answer before her younger sister popped up, looking equally baffled. “Why is the aubergine emoji funny?” Sc

PRICE 256GB, £708 (£849 inc VAT) from mi.com/uk Want a compact phone but don’t want to compromise on an optical zoom or the latest Snapdragon chipset? Xiaomi has heard your plea, answering with the diminutive, high-quality and rather expensive Xiaomi

PRICE 256GB, £291 (£349 inc VAT) from nothing.tech The Nothing Phone (2a) (we’ll drop the brackets from now on) reminds us that phone design needn’t be boring or safe. And with the 2a, Nothing manages to avoid the trap of producing just another itera

Back in issue 336 we showed you how to configure a Raspberry Pi as a VPN gateway for your home network, routing all your internet traffic through a secure, external VPN server. But what if you want to do the opposite? Running a VPN server on your loc

PRICE As reviewed, £2,333 (£2,799 inc VAT) from dell.co.uk For better or for worse, the new Dell XPS 14 follows the same design language as the XPS 13 Plus (see issue 350, p52). That means the same LED function row and invisible touchpad that made th

In the long distant past, when I wasn’t even three decades old, I was a hacker. To be precise, I explored online networks without permission, being very careful indeed not to break them, in order to learn more about the emerging connected world. What

It’s hard to beat a Chromebook for costconscious computing. Chromebooks consistently give you more for your money than the Windows or macOS competition, while Google’s Chromebook Plus initiative (see p81) drives home the point that they’re no longer

If your network generates equal amounts of data and embarrassment, don’t worry – you’re not alone. I’ve visited plenty of blue-chip company machine rooms, and if they’re not running at 70°C with every fan at maximum howl then they’re frequently a hea

ON SALE Thursday 9 May 2024 Whether it’s staying ahead of threats, spending wisely on the right IT kit or being your most productive self, we reveal how to be your best geek. Millions of us have solar panels and batteries, but how best to take advant