THE WI-FI BOOSTER THAT KILLS ALL NOTSPOTS
FULL
REVIEW
GROUP
TEST
p72
AMD Ryzen
Why Intel is scared p54
Bargain laptops
11 Chromebooks & Windows
laptops from £220 p76
utterly brilliant tools
& time savers
p30
ISSUE 272 JUNE 2017 £4.99
Tea cakes and
technology
Meet the unlikely
business IT pioneers p42
Upgrade to your
perfect monitor
Six 27in IPS panels
put to the test p74
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June2017 Issue272
FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO
HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH
Full contents overleaf
PRODUCT
OF THE MONTH
LEO
Less product of the month and more product
of the century, LEO – standing for Lyons
Electronic Office – was the world’s first
business computer. Its job? To “automate office
functions such as payroll and accounting”.
Sounds a little dull, we admit, but back in the
early 1950s it was LEO that helped J Lyons & Co
expand its tea shops into a very British empire,
and the business world hasn’t looked back
since. Remember a time when Britain was at
the forefront of technology in our
special feature.
p42
p122
TIP OF THE MONTH
“To avoid strangers coming and wiggling their
bottoms at you, do a quick inventory of all your
network cables, and figure out how much it
would cost to replace the whole lot,” writes
Steve Cassidy. For some context, turn to p121.
PERSON OF
THE MONTH
Mait Müntel
Think of any CERN scientist involved
in breakthrough technology…
who isn’t Tim BernersLee. That leaves Mait
Müntel, the brains
behind language
app Lingvist and
the multilingual
subject of
this month’s
p22
Profile.
p30
FREE SOFTWARE OF
THE MONTH
With so much great free software available, we
turned to the PC Pro crowd to help us decide
what to feature in this month’s roundup.
p102
FACT OF THE MONTH
Half of British companies have suffered a
ransomware attack, according to Malwarebytes
research, so how do you tell if you’ve been
infected? We speak to the experts in this
month’s Business Question.
THE LABS IN NUMBERS
Looking for a new laptop? We have a bargain answer…
12HRS 13MINS
Longest-lasting laptop
9
p76
£221
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MINUTES
All it takes to turn an old
laptop into a Chromebook
5
steps to
Chromebooks
choosing
your perfect
laptop
Lowest price
machine
lowest price winner
6
Windows
laptops
3
THE WI-FI BOOSTER THAT KILLS ALL NOTSPOTS
FULL
REVIEW
GROUP
TEST
p72
AMD Ryzen
p48
Why Intel is scared p54
We pick out four excellent
titles from the Creative Cloud
suite that you’ve probably
never heard of
Bargain laptops
11 Chromebooks & Windows
laptops from £220 p76
Best
BO
SOFT NUS
O&O WARE
Dis
wort kImage
h£
p52 33
FREE
software
brilliant tools
30 utterly
& time savers
p30
ISSUE 272 JUNE 2017 £5.99
Tea cakes and
technology
Meet the unlikely
business IT pioneers p42
Upgrade to your
perfect monitor
Six 27in IPS panels
put to the test p74
FEATURES
BRIEFING
10 5G: Is anyone falling for the hype?
COVER STORY
30 Best free software: part one
With 4G still in its infancy, is there any appetite for
the promise of even faster 5G networks?
In the first part of our freeware roundup, we
explore the best utilities, creative software and
time-savers that won’t cost you a penny – with
the help of PC Pro readers.
12 Infographic: Counterfeiters
Electronics have always been a target for fakers,
but counterfeits are now getting harder to spot –
we explore how widespread the problem is.
COVER STORY
42 Working wonders: the world’s first
business computers
From totting-up teacakes to building the iconic
Sydney Opera House, Nicole Kobie explores how
computers first broke into business.
48 The hidden secrets of Adobe
Creative Cloud
Have you ever wondered what the lesser lights
of the Creative Cloud package do? Barry Collins
discovers the hidden gems.
52 O&O DiskImage Professional
Want to create a backup image of your system?
Or protect individual files and folders? This
powerful imaging utility can do it all.
PROFILE
PODCAST
Join the PC Pro
podcast live every
fortnight or
download via iTunes.
Visit mixlr.com/
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14 PC Probe: The cyber secrets that
are too good to reveal
Security services are prepared to let criminals
escape to preserve their hacking techniques.
18 BEST
PRODU
CTS FRO
M
2017
p38
VIEWPOINTS
24
25
25
26
DARIEN GRAHAM-SMITH Are desktop
adverts a clue to the future of Windows?
BARRY COLLINS It’s time to learn our
software lessons the easy way.
BAT TER Y TECH
SPE CIAL WHA
T’S COM ING
NEX T
The Bre
xit effect
WORKSTATIONS
SECURE
YO
Is your
job at risk?
Best clo
ud
10 services
EXCLU
Pro Cover
Subs.indd
1
SIVE SUBSC
COVER
THE WI- FI
18/01/2017
p76
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on test
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THATT
GETTHEJOBDON
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270 PC
BOO STER
18:50
THAT KILL
S ALL NOT
AM
SPO TS
D Ry
REVIEW
10 steps
Why Intel zen
is
yo
take TO u must GROUP Barga scared
DAY
in laptop
TEST
11 Chro
FULL
p72
p54
p30
NICOLE KOBIE Why I finally let Amazon’s
Alexa through the door.
£5.99
4
3 THE PC PRO
Identifiable record-sharing highlights naivety
over privacy issues and the value of data.
MAY 2017
We speak to the former Hadron Collider scientist
Mait Müntel, whose app can make you fluent in
French, Spanish or Russian in record time using
machine learning.
13 NHS’s “inexcusable” Google deal a
lesson for Big Data
ISSUE 271
22 Lingvist
3 SUBSCRIBE:
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271 PC
Pro Cover
Best
FREE
softwar
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49 keybo
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shortcuts
0
shootoPCs
ut
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20/02/2017
17:30
utterly
& time brilliant tools
savers
p30
DICK POUNTAIN Who’s responsible for
Trump and Anonymous? People like us.
Tea cak
techno es and
logy
Meet the
unlike
ly
business
IT pione
ers p42
272 PC
Pro Cover
DVD.indd
1
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monito
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ISSUE 272
JUNE 2017
£5.99
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IPS
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20/03/2017
14:38
@PCPRO
June2017 Issue272
FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO
p68
The Samsung
Galaxy A5 has
bags of style
REVIEWS THIS MONTH
CHIPS
AMD Ryzen
54
PCs
Chillblast Fnatic Official
Ultimate Ryzen Gaming PC
PC Specialist Apollo Zen
58
59
LAPTOPS & PHONES
Nokia 3310
Sony Xperia XA1 and XA1 Ultra
BlackBerry KeyOne
Lenovo Yoga 720
Samsung Galaxy Book
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)
Huawei P8 Lite (2017)
60
61
61
62
62
68
69
SMARTWATCHES
Huawei Watch 2
65
ROUTERS
Linksys Velop
72
27IN IPS MONITORS
AOC I2775PQU
Asus VX279Q
Dell UltraSharp UP2716D
74
74
74
Eizo FlexScan EV2780
Iiyama ProLite
XUB2792QSU-B1
Philips 276E7QDAB
75
75
75
BARGAIN LAPTOPS
Acer Chromebook R13
Acer Spin 3
Asus ZenBook UX310UA
Acer Chromebook 14
Acer Chromebook R11
Asus Transformer Mini
Dell Chromebook 11
Dell Vostro 5468
HP Chromebook 13 G1
HP Pavilion x360
PC Specialist UltraNote IV 14
82
83
84
85
85
86
86
87
87
90
90
VOIP SYSTEMS
3CX Phone System 15
DrayTek VigorBX 2000ac
Kerio Operator 2.5.3
Sipgate Team
94
96
97
98
THE NETWORK
Epson WorkForce DS-360W
Tandberg Data
RDX QuikStation 8
p76
100
101
The laptops that will
suit any role – without
breaking the bank
REGULARS
Editor’s letter
The A-List
Readers’ comments
7
16
28
Subscriptions
Next month
One last thing…
108
129
130
THE NETWORK
92 Business Focus: VoIP systems
Four of the best VoIP systems for your firm.
99 Cheat Sheet: Network monitoring
We look at the pros and cons of monitoring.
102 How do I know if my network is
infected with ransomware?
It’s time to assume you’ve been infected, but
what can you do about it? We have the answers.
104 Coping with Wi-Fi growing pains
Steve Cassidy explores the process of scaling up.
FUTURES
124 Keeping railway tech on track
The ambitious plans for Britain’s trains.
126 Q&A: Quantum computers
Exploring plans for a quantum computer.
127 How tech makes faking news easy
Telling truth from lie is becoming more difficult.
128 GDO: Robots exhibition
The history of robots at the Science Museum.
Laptops
REAL WORLD COMPUTING
110
JON HONEYBALL Jon helps out an old client as they shift to
Office 365, but it’s the back-end infrastructure that was in
greatest need of a reboot.
113
PAUL OCKENDEN Paul investigates how you can roll your own
Internet of Things nodes using very cheap hardware – and
have fun while you’re doing it.
116
BRIAN HORISK Developing a new call-management system for
the Scottish SPCA highlighted the importance of listening
when creating bespoke software.
118
DAVEY WINDER Research from security firms is easy to ignore,
but they’re in the best position to spot issues. Davey runs
through the key takeaways from the latest batch.
120
STEVE CASSIDY Doing a spot of techie DIY is a good thing: not
only can it save you money, it also keeps you on top of trends
and solving modern problems.
5
@PCPRO
June2017 Issue272
FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO
Editor’s letter
Dearinternet,
stopbeing
suchanag
I ’ M CALLING IT : we’re living in the Nag Age of technology. Half
the sites I visit pop up a “Sign up to our newsletter” box as
soon as I get there. If I stop for a coffee in the real world, my
Android phone asks me if I want to leave a review. An hour
later, Google pesters me to add the venue to my timeline. If
I buy something from Amazon, an email arrives the next
day prompting me to review it.
I’d love to leave a huge DO NOT DISTURB sign
somewhere in my internet presence, but not only would it
do no good whatsoever, it would be like the “little Dutch
boy” trying to stop the flood with a thumb. It wouldn’t stop
the BBC asking me, constantly, to check out its new beta
site and leave feedback. Or Dell, or HP, or Lenovo, or any
of the sites I aim to fleetingly visit but halt me in my tracks
with nagging pop-ups.
Whenever I use sites such as Upwork, to find
freelancers for specific tasks, I’m compelled to fill out
numerous star ratings before I can finally close the job. Not
only must I rate each freelancer for communication,
quality of work and personal hygiene (okay, not that, but it
won’t be long), I’m also prompted to write a few words to
describe my experience on the site.
Then there’s LinkedIn, with its ridiculous option to
recommend people you’ve worked with. Let’s face one
simple fact: nobody, I repeat nobody, trusts those
recommendations. In fact, the more recommendations I
see someone has, the more I think how desperately they
want to be recommended, in which case they’re either
on the search for a new job or so bad at what they do they
need constant approbation.
All of this is on top of my nagging computers. Perhaps
it’s my fault for being the go-to-techie in my family, but
with an office Mac, my laptop, a phone, a Surface RT and
three other Windows computers of various ages in my
house, I’m constantly being asked to update the OS, apply
Dell’s update, update programs, update apps. I’ve set
everything I can to automatically do its thing without
bothering me, but it’s starting to feel like I’ve got one of PG
Wodehouse’s infamous aunts on my shoulder all the time.
So, technology has become a nag. But what can we do
about it? Marching on 10 Downing Street doesn’t seem like
a particularly viable option, and I’m already thinking of
setting up a petition to stop online petitions. No. We only
have two weapons.
The first is our own actions. That we stop leaving
reviews, or do the equivalent of a spoiled ballot paper and
write about our holidays in the “leave your comment here”
box (unless, of course, it’s a box in which you’re asked to
write about your holidays).
The second thing we can do is remind the people who
make these reminders happen – the algorithm masters,
the marketing teams that set the auto_popup_newsletter
value to 1 – that we’re human and we’re fed up with being
asked for our input for every single online move we make.
All of which makes me somewhat hypocritical, because
I have a genuine favour to ask. You see, we’re running
an online survey for PC Pro: your favourite sections,
columnists, the kinds of products you’d like us to review.
In return, how’s this: I won’t nag you with the same
question until 2018. Let me know at pcpro.link/272survey.
Tim Danton
Editor-in-chief
CONTRIBUTORS
Sasha Muller
A few weeks back, a
reader emailed to ask
for our 27in IPS monitor
recommendations. We set
monitor expert Sasha the
task. See his verdict on p74
Darien Graham-Smith
Darien spent more time
than he’d have liked testing
AMD’s Ryzen chip, and
two PCs that take full
advantage. Find out about
Intel’s new rival from p54
Brian Horisk
In our guest column in Real
World Computing, Brian
Horisk shares how he
helped deliver a new call
response system for the
Scottish SPCA. See p116
PC Pro readers
Simon Mellor, Ryan
Thomas and Adrian
Ciccantelli are three of the
readers who contributed
to our Best Free Software
feature, from p30
7
June2017 Issue272
EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Tim Danton: [email protected]
EDITORIAL FELLOW
Dick Pountain
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Darien Graham-Smith
REVIEWS EDITOR, ALPHR
Jonathan Bray: [email protected]
FEATURES EDITOR
Barry Collins
FUTURES EDITOR
Nicole Kobie
BRIEFING EDITOR
Stewart Mitchell
LETTERS & SOFTWARE EDITOR
Nik Rawlinson
ART & PRODUCTION
ART DIRECTOR
Paul Duggan
FREELANCE DESIGN
Bill Bagnall, Sarah Readman
SUB-EDITORS
Max Figgett, Monica Horridge, Priti Patel
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Tom Arah, Steve Cassidy,
Jon Honeyball, Dave Mitchell,
Mark Newton, Paul Ockenden,
Kevin Partner, Davey Winder
CONTRIBUTORS
Brian Horisk, Alan Martin
Christopher Minasians,
Sasha Muller, Nathan Spendelow
PHOTOGRAPHY
Michael Pheasant
ADVERTISING
Tel: 020 7907 6662
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CIRCULATION MANAGER
Emma Read
NEWSTRADE DIRECTOR
David Barker
@PCPRO
We celebrate the
best free software
this month (see p30),
but what’s the one
piece of software
that you’re genuinely
happy to pay for?
“LibreOffice. I give a modest
voluntary contribution to
keep it going and getting
better.”
“Smartphone apps and
games from small
developers – you can really
believe your purchase
makes a difference.”
8
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“Dropbox for Business. It
brings team management
to data, versioning of files,
an excellent range of
platform tools (just about
everything) and the
non-Windows platforms
aren’t crippled in
functionality.”
“VMware vSphere. Why?
Because running servers
directly ‘on the tin’ just
seems archaic these days.
Top tip for SMEs: the
vSphere Essentials Plus Kit
is a bundle of all of the useful
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While every care has been taken in the preparation of this
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24,233 (Jan-Dec 2016)
Briefıng
Slug Sectionhead
Background and analysis on all the important news stories
Infographic: Counterfeiting
How fake electronic goods cost
the industry billions p12
NHS’s deal is a lesson for Big Data
Partnership with Google shows
naivety over privacy issues p13
PC Probe
The cyber secrets that are
too good to reveal p14
5G:Isanyonefallingforthehype?
With 4G still in its infancy, is there any appetite for the promise of even faster 5G networks?
Stewart Mitchell investigates
the government has pledged the best
part of a billion pounds towards it, the
handset makers are desperate for it,
but experts are seeing little appetite
among network operators for the
much-hyped 5G technology.
Although the final standard won’t
be ratified until later this year, the
International Telegraph Union’s
(ITU) specifications have been
released and, as always, the headline
speed figures are alluring. The
specification demands at least a
20Gbits/sec downlink and 10Gbits/sec
uplink per mobile base station, and
although this is shared bandwidth,
it promises potential for a significant
speed boost and lower latency for
mobile broadband customers.
Moreover, Ofcom research even
suggests that the technology could
eventually exceed a benchmark
of 50Gbits/sec.
The government announced a
£16m 5G test hub as part of its spring
budget announcements, which
follows on from the further £740m it
announced it was devoting to 5G in
the autumn. However, with network
operators still short of recouping their
investment in 4G, industry watchers
see no great desire to quickly take
the plunge into next-generation
5G networks.
“We see a lot of hype about 5G
and it’s interesting to see different
approaches people are taking,”
explained Kester Mann, mobile
infrastructure expert with research
company CCS Insight.
“The Asian players and some in the
US are very keen to get early to market
and set the tone for 5G. If you compare
that to the UK players – although the
European Commission is quite bullish
– with operators there’s a lot more
caution and a lot more strategy and
looking to get the most benefits
possible from 4G.”
Furthermore, there’s a suspicion
that the debate surrounding 5G is
10
being led by hardware manufacturers,
who are keen for a new standard to
revitalise sales, rather than carriers
and consumers. “There’s still
scepticism as to how much 5G will
change things compared to 4G and
whether the apps and services that
require a 5G network are going to be
there,” said Mann.
“5G has to be careful that it doesn’t
get ahead of itself because the path
towards fully using 4G still has a long
way to go. Neither operators nor
manufacturers want to invest too
early in a technology with uncertain
use cases. Europe will be behind with
5G – similar to how it was with 4G,”
Mann added.
ABOVE Experts
are sceptical about
how much 5G will
change things
compared to 4G
Fixed broadband
replacement?
As with 3G and 4G before it, one
potential use case for 5G networks
is to eventually replace wired
broadband, especially in areas outside
of the fibre footprint. “Verizon and
AT&T see 5G as a replacement to
home broadband,” revealed Mann.
“They’re talking about fixed wireless
applications and trialling this year
with pre-commercial services coming
in 2018.”
However, broadband market
watchers in this country are highly
sceptical of the notion of 5G
disrupting the fixed-line market, not
least because of the tight data caps