CYBERLINK POWERDIRECTOR 16 ULTRA – INTRODUCES COMPREHENSIVE SUPPORT FOR 360 VIDEOS, BUT THERE ARE PLENTY OF N0N-360 ENHANCEMENTS TOO CyberLink always jumps on the latest technology trends quickly, and with version 16 of PowerDirector it’s hoping to get ahead of the curve for 360 video. Even if creating VR videos holds zero interest, there are many … Read more
Acronis True Image 2018 Backup your data There are lots of good reasons to backup your data, but one that’s been in the news recently is ransomware. This is malware that locks all your files, and displays a message saying you won’t get them back unless you pay money into a foreign account. This new … Read more
Impressed by the richness of its latest release, Shashank Sharma is keen to award Linux Mint the prestigious ‘Debian of the desktop distros’ award… Features at a glance Spicy customisation The range of themes, desklet and applets can help you change the appearance of the distro. LTS release Mint 18.2 will receive updates until 2021 … Read more
Jonni Bidwell splutters under pressure to make a hat-related anecdote worthy of this delightful distribution, which is now on version 26. – Pick a language, any language. Preferably one you understand, though. Sensible packaging Fedora 26 also includes the new DNF(Dandified yum) 2.0 package manager, which still respects yum’s syntax. The yum command is actually … Read more
At best, Chinese software firm EaseUS is a junk offender. It ’s currently exploiting users’ fears about WannaCry and Pety a ransomware to plug its backup software (www.snipca.com/24878, scroll down for the spiel), and then uses said software to ferry junk into PCs. Worse, it seems to be redirecting users to sites that may contain … Read more
IObit’s free defragging tool Smart Defrag is not a bad program. It can help to make your PC run faster and more smoothly, and it’s broadly well-behaved. But like a kid who’s easily led astray, Smart Defrag has a habit of bringing unwanted friends home – and these friends change depending on the day of … Read more
There’s a bewildering array of Linux distros to choose from, but one distro has always set the bar high in UX and design terms. We spoke to Cassidy James Blaede, co-founder of elementary OS, about its latest release How old is elementary OS? We had our first release in 2011 and that was elementary OS … Read more
Zesty Zapus is out, but its release has been overshadowed by the demise of Unity, the death of Canonical’s convergence dreams and layoffs at the company I took the view that, if convergence was the future and we could deliver it as free software, that would be widely appreciated both in the free software community … Read more
BY MARK HACHMAN RANSOMWARE DOESN’T SNEAK INTO your PC like ordinary malware. It bursts in, points a gun at your data, and screams for cash—or else. And if you don’t learn to defend yourself, it could happen again and again. Armed gangs of digital thieves roaming the information superhighway sounds like an overwrought action movie, … Read more
AT LAST, A SERIOUS AND POWERFUL RIVAL TO ADOBE PHOTOSHOP – AND FOR A FRACTION OF ITS PRICE There can be few Adobe Photoshop CC subscribers who don’t look at that steep fee leaving their account every month and wonder if there’s a cheaper alternative out there. Until recently, the search for competent alternatives would … Read more
FINE CORE SECURITY COMPONENTS, BUT SOME OF THE EXTRAS ARE WEAK. WHEN ESET FIRST suite-ified its NOD32 Antivirus, we weren’t all that impressed. Most of the extra features felt tacked on to meet a checklist. But in the years since, ESET has layered in features that have turned this into an absolutely worthwhile suite. It’s … Read more
Avira Free Security Suite 2017 NOT A MATCH FOR A FULL PAID SUITE, BUT PRETTY DARN GOOD FOR FREE. FOR SOME YEARS now home users have had access to free anti-virus, but recently Avira decided to go the whole hog. It made a full featured suite available for free. You won’t find anything resembling the … Read more