Software : Microsoft changes browser strategy ahead of Windows 10 launch |
- Microsoft changes browser strategy ahead of Windows 10 launch
- Updated: The five best free utilities of 2015
- Buying Guide: Best sat nav 2015: which GPS navigation option should you buy?
- PC Gaming Week: Build your first game using Scratch on the Raspberry Pi
| Microsoft changes browser strategy ahead of Windows 10 launch Posted:  Big changes are on the cards for Microsoft's twin Spartan and Internet Explorer browsers ahead of the release of Windows 10. First reported by ZDnet, Microsoft is adjusting the rendering engines used by each browser so that the older Trident (MSHTML) engine is only used by IE 11 whereas Project Spartan is solely run on the newer Edge (EdgeHTML) engine. The move was made following feedback from Windows Insiders and customers that have downloaded the Windows 10 technical preview, where both Edge and Trident rendering engines were used inside each browsers. Users mentioned that they weren't able to work out the difference between how Spartan and IE 11 operate and thus Microsoft felt the change was needed. What is Edge?Edge, the newer version of the rendering engine, is based on a fork of Trident that has been further optimised for both standards and interoperability. It promises better support for "modern HTML websites" and brings with it support for unique user experiences such as annotation, distraction-free reading and Cortana integration. Spartan, Microsoft's new browser that now runs exclusively on Edge, will be the default browser for all version of Windows 10. IE 11, meanwhile, will ship with certain versions of Windows 10, however, Microsoft has yet to clarify the versions that will have it on board though it's speculated it will ship in devices running the desktop SKU of Windows 10. |
| Updated: The five best free utilities of 2015 Posted:  Introduction
A good set of system utilities is a must have for every PC to give you an easy way to make things right should the worst happen and hell freeze over on your system. Windows does have a set of limited utilities built-in yet there are a number of excellent alternatives out there and the good news is that most of them can be procured easily and completely free of charge. Ranging from driver updaters and partition wizards to full blown recovery suites and imaging tools, our list of the best five free PC utilities covers all the bases. 1. 3DP Chip
Programs that examine the registry and update drivers don't have to be big and 3DP Chip more than lives up to that with device examining expertise that are among the best around. After navigating the installation process and preventing the added bloatware, it's straight into the program that displays all the devices that are a part of your PC along with a photo of the component alongside it. Users can get on with the task of updating drivers by simply clicking on each device one-by-one before being whisked off to an external webpage where it asks you to confirm whether or not to update the driver in question. Any time you run into problems there is a Q&A tab that allows you to send a bug report off to 3DP Chip for further examination and at the bottom of the window there is a brief description of the CPU clock speed, memory size and OS that is running. One criticism of 3DP Chip would be that it is almost too lightweight when compared to various other solutions out there. Many others have a little bit more to offer in terms of automatically searching and downloading driver updates without having to leave the window. 2. MiniTool Partition Wizard Free
Fiddling around with the partitions on your hard drive can be very tricky if you don't know what you're doing and could even cause damage to your PC. MiniTool Partition Wizard Free is a tool that can help at every step of the process and even includes a section to repair any damaged partitions present on the system. A series of different wizards make up the program and in its most basic form it is there to assist anyone looking to create, edit or recover partitions. When opened it shows the partitions on your system and by clicking on each one it comes up with a list of wizards and operations that can be performed by the program. This includes everything from formatting, deleting, moving, extending, merging, splitting, copying or aligning a partition to changing it from NFTS to FAT or the serial number of the drive. The most popular of these options are available along the top and novices will be consoled by the fact that help text appears when you click or hover over the option. New features are regularly added and the latest one saw a full OS migration to SSD option and refreshed interface. Anyone looking to improve their system performance, and repair or edit partitions will find a lot to get their teeth stuck in to here. 3. Daemon Tools Lite
Creating virtual drives on your PC can provide a replacement for all manner of different tasks and Daemon Tools Lite has been, and remains, one of the best utilities around to do just that. A word of caution should be added to this review before we even get kicked off thanks to the tricky installation process. Free pieces of software often come with the caveat that there will be plenty of bloatware thrown in for good measure and Daemon Tools Lite doesn't disappoint. The first obstacle is choosing to proceed with the free licence option, which is very easy to miss as it is in small blue writing at the bottom of the window below the paid-for options that are in bold. There is then one last thing to watch out for in the installation in the shape of a change to your browser's homepage and simply click cancel to ride it out. Once inside the program there's little more to it than the ability to create disk images of a variety of different types and a store is on the right hand side that enables the purchase of a number of PC games that can be mounted onto virtual drives. Compatible images can be loaded onto the drive and it emulates them quickly making no mistake in performing its main task well and is an excellent product once you get past the installation. 4. Pandora Recovery
Ever gone on a mass deleting spree on your computer and accidentally got rid of the wedding photos? We've all done something similar and Pandora Recovery remains one of the easiest ways to get deleted files back from the grave. The installation process is a painless one and the wizard that greets you when the program opens up for the first time can be set to appear every time it is opened. For beginners the wizard is a god-send as it first instructs you to look in the recycling bin before embarking on the full scan and then gives you three options. One is to manually review all files to pick the ones to restore, the second is to search using a number of parameters, and the third a deep (surface) scan that looks for files by type. Unlike some other recovery programs, any files found are shown in an explorer window that makes it very easy to check through and restore any ones that you want to bring back. The program also recommends that these files are restored to a secondary drive such as a USB stick or external hard drive. The program's quick scan mode does sometimes fail to get to as many files as a full scan and this is the only real downside to a program that makes it very easy to find lost files. 5. MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition
Coming out of the same stable as the partition wizard mentioned earlier on, the MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition is for all those users that have a little less to deal with than an entire lost partition. The interface of this suite is an extremely simplified one and is made up of five different options that allow you to undelete, recover a damaged partition, recover a lost partition, rescue digital media and restore CD or DVDs that are damaged. Once inside each of the different sections it works as you'd expect a recovery program would function and its wide range of different methods plus the lack of bloatware makes it a credible choice. The free edition only has a 1GB data restoration capacity and this could be used up in less than one scan if a lot of files need to be stored so is something to consider before embarking on a restore of any larger files. |
| Buying Guide: Best sat nav 2015: which GPS navigation option should you buy? Posted:  Sat navs - introUPDATED: We've updated our list with the best sat navs and our new top five sat nav app. The car sat nav is an essential form of technology that we all take for granted. These days, with GPS-supporting smartphones and apps from the likes of TomTom, Garmin and the rest, you don't necessarily need a hardware sat nav, but they are still coming out from a few stalwart brands. Specifically: TomTom and Garmin. Long story short: hardware sat navs have better GPS receivers, which is particularly important in urban areas, and only really do one thing (although Garmin is always keen to bolt on fancy extras). Smartphone sat nav apps have better interfaces and screens, and are cheap (if you ignore the cost of your phone). Some are even free. Another peculiarity of sat navs is that because the core functionality has barely changed in a decade, they tend to remain on sale for years, at ever-reducing prices. Anyway, if you want a sat nav that won't let you down, you've come to the right place. The top five hardware devices are on page 2, the top five apps on page 3, a couple of oddities – a HUD and a motorbike specialist – on page 4. You have now reached your destination, says "English Jane". Sat navs - hardware
1. TomTom Go 5000The 5-inch member of TomTom's latest range is pure sat nav at its best Unless you desperately need a screen an inch bigger, in which case try the Go 6000, we'd say this 5-incher is the sweet spot in TomTom's sat nav range. The essential difference between TomTom's devices and Garmins is that TomTom's are a little more stripped back, with fewer smartphone-style features. In our opinion, that's a better route to go down, excellent though Garmin's sat navs are. You get traffic updates for life here, but you will have to pay an extra £20 per year for updates to keep you safe from safety cameras. Read: TomTom Go 5000 review
2. Garmin Nuvi 3598LMT-DSlickness and features abound on this winner from Garmin Another top-of-the-range GPS box, this has a five-inch screen and offers smartphone-like smoothness, excellent mapping and can be relied on to get you from A to B with plenty of points of interest and smart traffic-evading services that don't require a SIM or data connection – your car's DAB connectivity is used instead. As you'd expect at the price, luxe features abound, including Real Directions, which dispenses with abstract lefts or rights after hard-to-estimate distances, instead using landmarks: "turn left at Starbucks." The quality does cost, and you'll need to pay an extra £17 per year for UK camera info. However, it's an excellent device and whether you prefer this or the TomTom 6000 or TomTom 5000 largely comes down to whether you want lots of features (Garmin) or more of a concentration on core sat nav abilities (TomTom). Read: Garmin nuvi 3598LMT-D review
3. TomTom Go 6000The big brother of the Go 5000 offers more screen but less value The TomTom Go 6000 is an impressive piece of kit. The interface is intuitive, with TomTom's excellent routing benefiting from being able to draw on live traffic data to make for incredibly accurate journey times as well. The fact that it includes lifetime map and journey updates for 45 countries in Europe make it all the sat nav you should ever need. The 6-inch screen is bright and clear and easy to see whatever the lighting outside, and the voices are clear and precise too. The new mounting system is solid, yet it's easy to remove the sat nav from its cradle if you need to. You can charge the sat nav from a standard micro-USB connector, if you're away from your car too, which adds to its flexibility. You have to pay extra for camera data, but the £20 a year cost is not prohibitive. However for us, the six-inch screen is overkill, so we recommend the cheaper, 5-inch Go 5000 over this. If you're all about screen real estate, feel free to ignore us on that one. Read: TomTom Go 6000 review
4. Garmin nuvi 3490LMTAnother smartphone-like sat nav offering from Garmin This was among the first sat navs to take design cues from smartphones. To that end it's got a capacitive touchscreen, increased slimness and decreased thickness, live services via a connected smartphone app, and looks and feels great. Elsewhere, the admittedly steep sticker price buys you UK and Euro maps with updates for life, Bluetooth and voice control. You have to pay £17 for camera updates. This has been largely superseded by the Nuvi 3598LMT but remains available and a viable option. Its price hasn't come down as much as you might think, though. Read: Garmin nuvi 3490LMT review
5. TomTom Go 60Very strong budget sat nav option The best alternative to these high-end sat navs, other than using your phone, is to ignore the mid-range entirely and go for a cheap and cheerful device like this one or the Garmin Nuvi 2699. Giving you 6 inches of screen for around £120, this will get you from A to B safely. So long as you can get over the rather olde worlde resistive touchscreen and don't expect much beyond the navigation essentials, it's a solid effort. Read: TomTom Go 60 reviewSat nav - apps for your smartphone
1. TomTom Go Mobile (Android)New freemium model has some odd pricing but is generally both cheap and excellent Like its iPhone cousin, below, this is an excellent option, particularly once you're out of the middle of town – smartphone sat navs can struggle in built-up areas. It gives consistently decent navigation and has all the excellent key features of TomTom's standalone sat navs, including smart Traffic and speed camera alerts included in its price – and pricing is the most interesting element here, in some respects. You get the first 50 miles per month for free, then you can choose to pay nothing – and lose turn-by-turn navigation, but keep the ability to browse maps, for what that's worth – or £14.99 for a one-year sub, or £34.99 for a three-year sub. For that, you get the speed cam and traffic data thrown in. The only way that's a bad deal, compared to what TomTom was previously charging on Android – and is still charging on iOS – is if you don't want speed camera and traffic data. Read: TomTom Go Mobile for Android app review
2. TomTom (iOS)Reasonably priced, at least compared to a hardware sat nav This is an excellent option, particularly once you're out of the middle of town – smartphone sat navs can struggle in built-up areas, presumably due to weaker GPS reception and the fact they're always doing numerous other things at the same time as navigation. It's versatile, with a lovely UI, and gives consistently decent navigation. The price? Well, it's a lot cheaper than a standalone GPS unit, but a lot more expensive than your average app. On iOS the basic app is £26 but you'll need to add £18 per year for traffic updates and £16 per year for camera info. The app does offer enough to make it worth the outlay, in our humble opinion. Read: TomTom iOS app review
3. CoPilot Premium (iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8)A cheaper option than TomTom's sat nav app CoPilot Live Premium is a less effective navigator than TomTom's app but it does have several things going for it. It's cheaper at £20 for the basic app, but that price also includes camera and traffic info, so it's significantly cheaper if you want the full package. It's also very customisable and you can search addresses via geotagged photos and Google Search, as well as the more traditional methods. And while it's choice of routes can be eccentric, but generally speaking, it won't get you lost. Read: CoPilot Premium iOS app review
4. Telenav Scout (iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8)An even cheaper sat nav app option. In fact, it's free… This one costs nothing (for one country – additional ones are a few quid or you can get all available countries for £7.49) and performs adequately. Traffic info is a further £7.49 for a lifetime's worth of updates. Thanks to Foursquare and TripAdvisor integration, Scout is especially good for tourists. For some reason, in order to find the Scout app, you'll need to search for "Scout GPS Maps, Meetup & Chat" on Play and "GPS Navigation, Maps & Traffic - Scout (Sat Nav)" at the App Store. No, we have no idea why they've done that. Read: Telenav Scout review
5. Nokia Here (iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8)Once the preserve of Windows Phone users only, this is now a real rival to Google and Apple Maps We're awaiting a full review of Nokia's sat nav app, which has just returned to the Android and iOS app stores. It's always been a very solid performer and it's at a compelling price point: nothing. Read: Nokia Here hands on reviewSat nav - a motorbike sat nav, a HUD andthe all-time classic
TomTom RiderAn easy-riding motorbike sat nav unit for leather and helmet enthusiasts The TomTom Rider is an excellent sat nav unit for a motorcyclist, works terrifically well and should be one of only a couple of options you consider if you're in the market for one. With no car charger or mount included, in contrast with its biggest rival, Garmin's Zumo350, this is strictly for bike only. We'll have a review of the 2015 update to this device with you shortly. Read: TomTom Rider review
Garmin HUDKeep your eyes on the road with Garmin's heads-up display One day, car technology might put an end to just about all road accidents. But right now we're in a tricky phase where drivers are being bombarded with more and more features and functions. That's a major problem when it comes to driver distraction. It's never a good idea for to take your eyes off the road ahead, even to glance momentarily at your navigation screen. That's exactly where the new Garmin HUD comes in. It's a head-up display that's compatible with literally any car, no matter how new nor how old. The idea is that is delivers heads-up navigation cues along with other information including your current speed and time to destination so that you can keep your eyes forward and on the road. Read: Garmin Hud review
Google itYou've already got it, and it can be a life-saver… Google keeps on honing its long-standing GPS favourite. While it's still primarily for pedestrian navigation, it does do turn-by-turn car navigation adequately, and now offers traffic warnings and an ever-improving bicycle mode. For a lot of users, this (or Apple's steadily improving Maps) may be all you need. Clearly the need for a data connection limits its usefulness for longer journeys, but you can preview and store smaller map areas for offline navigation. |
| PC Gaming Week: Build your first game using Scratch on the Raspberry Pi Posted:  You can use a wide range of programming languages with the Raspberry Pi, but here we're going to use Scratch. It's a great beginner's language, as it introduces many of the concepts of programming while at the same time being easy to use. It's especially good for creating graphical programs such as games. If you've never programmed before, or if you're new to graphical programming, we'll ease you gently in, and hopefully have a little fun along the way. Without further ado, let's get started. You'll find Scratch on the desktop in Raspbian, so there's no need to install anything - just click on the icon to get started. It's best to use Raspbian rather than one of the other distros for the Pi for this, since not many of the others support Scratch. If you want to try this on other (non-Raspberry Pi) computers, Scratch is available for most systems, including Windows, Mac OS X and most flavours of Linux. Head to http://scratch.mit.edu for more information if you want to install Scratch on another computer. The main window is split up into sections. Broadly speaking, the bits you can use to make your programs are on the left, you make your programs in the middle, and the programs run on the right. Each program is made up of a number of sprites (pictures) that contain a number of scripts. It's these scripts that control what happens when the program is running.
In the top-left hand corner, you'll see eight words (Motion, Looks, Sound, Pen, Control, Sensing, Operations and Variables). Each of these is a category that contains pieces that you can drag and drop into the scripts area to build programs. Good luck! Variables and messagesSooner or later, you're going to want to get your program to remember something. It might be a number, a piece of text, or anything. You can do this using variables. These are little pieces of the computer's memory that your program can place pieces of data in. In step 3, we created a pair of these to store some numbers in, although we could also have put text in them. Note that in some programming languages, you have to create different types of variables if you want to store different types of data, but you don't need to worry about that in Scratch. Once you have created a variable, you can then use it in a few ways. Firstly, you have to set them to be a particular value, then you can use them to evaluate conditions (which we'll do in steps 6 and 11), or you can output them. MessagesIf you create a number of scripts, you may need to communicate between them. Sometimes you can do this with variables, but it is often better to use messages. These can be used to trigger scripts in the same way as key presses can. When one script broadcasts a message, it will then trigger all the scripts that start with When I Receive… Like variables, messages have names, so they have to be created first, and for a script to trigger it has to be linked to the same message as the broadcast. Step by step1. Create the mouse
Change the image from a cat to a mouse by going to Costumes > Import > Animals > Mouse 1. Then reduce the sprite size by clicking on the Shrink sprite icon (circled) and then the mouse. We set it to about the size of our thumbnail. 2. Set keys
Click on Scripts, and change When Right Arrow Key Pressed to When r Key Pressed. We'll use this to start a new game (r is for reset). Then drag Move 10 Steps off the bottom of the script. If you drop it back in the left side, it will be deleted. 3. Create and name variable
Click on Variables in the top-left (see above for more details on what they are). Click on Make A Variable and enter the variable name as score. Repeat the process to create a variable called over. 4. Reset the score
Under the script When r Key Presses, add the lines show (from Looks), Go To X:100, Y:100 (from Motion, don't forget to change the 0s to 100s), Set Score To 0 and Set Over to 0 (both from Variables). 5. Add Broadcast
Add the block Broadcast… to the bottom of the When r Key Pressed script. Once it's there, click on the drop-down menu and select New... and give the message the name 'start'. We'll use this to let the other sprite know that the game has started. 6. Create a loop
We can create loops that cycle through the same code many times. Continue the script with Repeat Until… (from Control), and then drag and drop … = … (from Operators), then drag Over (from Variables) into the left-hand side of the = and enter 1 on the right. 7. Add to your loop
Inside the Repeat Until Over = 1 block, add Change score By 1 (from Variables), Move 7 Steps (from Motion) and If On Edge, Bounce (also from Motion). These three pieces of code will be constantly repeated until the variable over gets set to 1. 8. Hide the mouse
Once the game has finished (and the cat has got the mouse), the Repeat Until loop will end and the program will continue underneath it. Drag Hide (from Looks) under the loop, so the mouse disappears when this happens. 9. Resize your cat
Select Choose New Sprite From File > Cat 4, and shrink the sprite down to an appropriate size, like we did with the mouse. Each sprite has its own set of scripts. You can swap between them by clicking on the appropriate icon in the bottom-right. 10. Move the cat
In the scripts for the new sprite, start a new script with When I Receive start (from Control), and Go To X:-100 Y:-100. This will move the cat to the opposite corner of the screen from the mouse. (0,0) is the middle. 11. Give the cat a loop
As with the mouse, the cat also needs a loop to keep things going. Add Repeat Until (from Control), and then in the blank space add Touching Sprite 1 (from Sensing). This will keep running until the cat (sprite 2) catches the mouse (sprite 1). 12. Set the difficulty
Inside the Repeat Until block, add Point Towards Sprite 1 (from Motion) and Move 4 Steps (also from Motion). The amount the cat and mouse move in each loop affects the difficulty of the game. We found 4 and 7, respectively, to work well. 13. Finish the loop
The loop will finish when the cat has caught the mouse - the game is over, so we need to stop the script on Sprite 1. We do this by adding Set over To 1 (from Variables) underneath the Repeat Until block. This will cause Sprite 1's main loop to finish. 14. Tell the player the game is over
We now want to let the player know that the game is over. We will do this in two ways: with audio, and on screen. Add Play Drum 1 for 1 Beats (from Sound), then Say Mmmm Tasty For 1 Secs (from Looks). 15. Display a score
Finally, we can let the player know their score. We increased the variable score by one every loop, so this will have continued to go up. Add Say You Scores … For 1 Secs, then drag another Say … for 1 Secs block and then drag score (from Variables) into the blank field. 16. Play your game!
Press r and play! You can use the up and down arrows to move the mouse around. You can make it easier or harder by changing the size of the sprites and the amount they move each loop. Good luck and happy gaming! |
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