Microsoft's new Spartan browser has made its debut in the latest build of the Windows 10 Technical Preview. Spartan is the pared-back browser that will replace Internet Explorer as the default web browser in the next-generation operating system.

Spartan is the only notable new feature in Build 10049, which has been made available for download only to those on the "fast" ring of the Windows Insider programme. The latest update is otherwise a collection of a bug fixes, indicating Microsoft is beginning to lock down Windows 10 ahead of this summer's final release. 

Everything you need to know about Windows 10

Spartan isn't yet feature complete, with even basic functions such as browsing history not yet added to the browser. However, this version does include some of the more advanced features, such as the ability to annotate web pages and the Reading List/Reading View, which allows you to save web articles for later browsing in an ad-stripped window. The Cortana voice assistant is also built in for US testers, although - like the Cortana search bar on the Windows 10 taskbar - it's not yet available for those who choose UK English as their default language. 

Spartan is pinned to the taskbar in the new Windows 10 build, while Internet Explorer is relegated to a pre-installed app that has to be searched for. Microsoft last week announced it was ditching plans to offer the Internet Explorer rendering engine as an option within Spartan, which has its own "Edge" engine. This means businesses will need continued access to Internet Explorer to run some legacy web applications, forcing Microsoft to keep bundling IE in Windows 10, even if it won't be immediately visible to users. 

Microsoft has yet to decide on the final branding for Spartan, which is only a working codename, but has confirmed that it won't be using the Internet Explorer moniker. 

Spartan will be used across all versions of Windows 10, including the variant for smartphones. Microsoft is planning to release a new version of the OS for phones in the next fortnight, with many more Lumia devices now being added to the list of Windows 10-compatible handsets.

Apple is hoping to tempt more Android users over to the iPhone by extending its trade-in programme to the company's retail stores. Apple's staff will now be able to determine the value of your old handset and give you a credit against the purchase of a new iPhone 5c, iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus. 

The company has been offering an online trade-in programme for some time, in conjunction with its recycling partner Brightstar. It's not clear if the new trade-in scheme is being run in partnership with the same firm, but if it is, you can get an indication of what your phone will be worth to Apple by using the Brightstar website. 

You're not going to earn a huge discount off your new Apple slab, if the Brightstar website is anything to go by. An original HTC One will fetch only £54. A 32GB Samsung Galaxy S5 is worth £144, an S4 of the same capacity will generate £83, while the S3 is worth only £45.

Apple's not much more generous with its own handsets. A 16GB iPhone 4 is now worth a mere £25 at trade-in. A 32GB iPhone 5c is worth £90, but dropping storage to the base 8GB still gives you a return of £80, proving that stiff premium Apple applies to storage when you buy a new iPhone doesn't necessarily flow back when it comes to recycling the handset. The most it seems you can earn from Apple's trade-in scheme is £170, if you've got a 64GB iPhone 5s to hand back. That will get you about a third off the cost of a new iPhone 6, with only 16GB of storage. 

Apple's trade-in deals don't necessarily offer the best value for old handsets. Carphone Warehouse will give you £65 for the HTC One, £174 for the Galaxy S5, but only £130 for the 64GB iPhone 5s. Private sales of handsets on auction sites such as eBay may also fetch a higher price. Used HTC One devices appear to be fetching between £70 and £80 on the auction site, but such sales obviously comes with added risk and inconvenience.

The new in-store trade-in scheme will swing into operation in Apple Stores this week, including those in the UK, according to a report on 9to5Mac. 

Just when you thought Microsoft's Surface tablets were dead in the water, the company announces a brand-new addition to the family: the Surface 3. Unlike previous Surface tablets, though, which ran the now defunct Windows RT operating system, the Surface 3 will run full Windows 8.1 like its big brother, the Surface Pro 3, and get a free upgrade to Windows 10 once it's available.

The Surface 3 takes several design cues from the Pro 3, including its magnesium chassis and 3:2 aspect ratio, but its display is much smaller, measuring 10.8in with a 1,920x1,280 resolution. Powered by Intel's new 1.6GHz quad-core Atom x7-Z8700 processor, Microsoft says the Surface 3 should be able to last for up to 10 hours of video playback. It will also have stereo speakers with Dolby Audio-enhanced sound, a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera and a 3.5-megapixel front facing camera. 

Like all Surface tablets, the Surface 3 will also be able to double up as a laptop thanks to Microsoft's new Surface 3 Type Cover keyboard. To help prop up the screen, there's a kickstand round the back. The kickstand has three positions, making it easier to use on your lap as well as your desk. This isn't quite as flexible as the Surface Pro 3's stand, but we'll have to wait and see how it fares once we get one in for a full review. 

You get a decent amount of ports as well considering its size. As well as a single full-sized USB3 port, there's a mini DisplayPort, a microSD card reader, a headphone jack and a micro USB charging port. If that's not enough, you'll be able to expand your range of connections with a docking station. It also comes with all manner of sensors, including an ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and a digital compass. 

The Surface 3 will be compatible with Microsoft's optional Surface Pen as well. We liked this a lot when we tested it with the Surface Pro 3, so we're pleased to see it making a return appearance. 

Available in both 3G and 4G variations from May 7th, the Surface 3 will be available from £419 up to £499 with pre-orders opening today (March 31st). The £419 will get you 64GB of storage and 2GB of RAM, while the £499 version will have 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. You'll also get a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal and OneDrive storage if you buy one before December 31st 2015. We'll bring you our full review as soon as we get our hands on a review sample. 

The Digital CarCam 01 is one of the cheapest action cams we've seen. Although it’s nominally £20 more expensive than the Nextbase In-Car Cam 101 Go, the CarCam comes with a memory card (albeit a limited 4GB model) which means it’s ready to go right out of the box.

It’s not quite as compact as the 101 Go, thanks to a bulbous barrel at the bottom of the device. This houses the rotatable camera lens, which makes it easy to adjust the angle of the camera without having to fiddle with the suction cup mount.  

The camera starts recording as soon as it’s plugged into the charger, and there are easy-to-access buttons on the back to stop and start recordings manually and to switch off the internal mic. We would prefer an option to switch off the distracting screen while driving, though. The 2in display is pretty dim, too, making it hard to see what’s going on in broad daylight and to ensure that the camera is lined up correctly before you set off.  

Daytime footage

The CarCam 01 doesn’t have built-in GPS, but it does have a collision sensor that will prevent any files recorded during an accident from being overwritten. There’s a File Lock button on the top of the device to manually protect recordings, if your car isn’t directly involved in an accident, for example, or you simply want to make sure that certain footage will be retained.

The CarCam 01 doesn’t come with any software. You simply plug it into your PC with the supplied USB cable and access the recorded video files directly from its memory card. Like the 101 Go, the CarCam 01 is limited to 720p footage at 30fps, whereas most dashcams we've seen, such as the Mio MiVue 518, offer Full HD 1080p recording. Footage captured in daylight showed a reasonable level of detail, but it’s difficult to make out the number plates of cars in adjoining lanes on the motorway, for example. The CarCam also struggles with contrast, when part of the road is in the shade and the rest is bathed in bright sunlight, making it very difficult to make out what’s happening in the darker areas. However, that’s nothing compared to its problems after dark. Footage is extremely murky in all but the most brightly lit roads, making it hard – if not impossible – to work out what’s going on.  

Night-time footage

The CarCam takes still images, which could be handy for recording damage for insurance accident reports, especially as they’re automatically stamped with the date and time. However, there’s a notable lag on the shutter button, which means you can easily introduce camera shake by moving the unit before the photo’s even been taken. We weren't particularly impressed by the CarCam’s menu system, which we found needlessly fiddly to navigate, despite there being six different buttons on the device itself.  

With the Best Buy-winning Mio MiVue 518 costing only £10 more, we can find little reason to put up with any of the CarCam 01’s numerous shortcomings. 

Google announced a brand new addition to the Chrome family yesterday in the form of the Chromebit. Made by Asus, the Chromebit will be able to turn any TV or display with an HDMI port into a full-blown Chrome OS PC. It's portable, too, with Google claiming it's 'smaller than a candy bar'. However, unlike the Google Chromecast, the Chromebit's HDMI connecter can swivel round so it doesn't stick out the back, giving it an almost periscope-like shape.

According to Engadget, the Chromebit is powered by a Rockship 3288 SoC, a quad-core ARM Mali 760 GPU and 2GB of RAM, and it has 16GB of eMMC memory, a USB2.0 port, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 support as well as a Smart Ready controller.

Little else is known about the device right now, including its battery life, but Google says the latter is still being tested in the lab. It will be launching this summer and will be available for less than $100 in either blue, silver or orange. A UK release date and price has yet to be announced. 

Google also announced a new range of Chromebooks yesterday, including the Asus Chromebook Flip. Much like Lenovo's Yoga laptops, and indeed Lenovo's N20p Chromebook, the Chromebook Flip can effectively fold in half, allowing you to use it as a Chrome OS tablet as well as a traditional Chromebook. It has a 10.1in touchscreen with a 1,280x800 resolution, making it slightly smaller than the Lenovo N20p, but it stands to be much more attractive thanks to its all-metal aluminium chassis, which measures just 15mm thick and weighs less than two pounds. 

Inside, the Chromebook Flip has the same quad-core 2.0GHz Rockchip 3288 CPU as the Chromebit, 4GB of RAM, and a 16GB SSD. It will be available later this spring for $249. Google has yet to announce UK pricing for the Chromebook Flip, but we've reached out to Asus and will update this article when we hear back. 

The Nextbase 101 Go is the cheapest dashcam we've tested, and also one of the smallest. The dinky little unit and its equally compact suction cup holder will do little to obstruct your view, even if you ignore the safety advice to place the device behind your rear view mirror. It’s the lightest camera we've seen, too, weighing only 56g, so there’s little prospect of it yanking the suction cup off the windscreen when you go over a speed bump.  

The camera could hardly be simpler to operate. It starts recording the moment you plug in the charger and it's easy to navigate the menus with the four substantial buttons on the front of the device. The 101 Go has a “G Sensor” that claims to detect impacts automatically and to protect recordings made around that incident from being overwritten, but you can press the incident button on the front of the device just to make sure your vital footage is kept. 

Daytime footage

The tiny screen on the 101 Go isn’t particularly bright. It’s fine for browsing the menus, but if you’re trying to replay an incident, you won’t be able to see a huge amount in broad daylight. The limited resolution of the screen also doesn’t give you much, if any, hope of picking out details such as vehicle number plates. The camera will turn off its screen after a few seconds, so you don't have to worry about being distracted.

There’s no software supplied with the 101 Go, but plug the device into a PC with the supplied USB cable and select Mass Storage mode, and it’s easy to browse the videos and photos stored on the camera. Protected recordings (those that have made during an incident) have the letters “PRO” at the beginning of their filename, making it easy to find critical footage. 

The camera has weak video quality. This is one of only two dashcams we've tested with video resolution limited to 720p at 30fps, and the captured footage is blocky, looks heavily compressed and lacks detail. Even when crawling past parked cars at around 5 to 10mph, it’s impossible to pick out number plates in broad daylight, and at 120 degrees, the camera's field of view is one of the narrowest we've seen.

Night-time footage

Things get worse at night. On unlit roads, it can be tricky to make out what’s going on and there’s lots of distortion on the recorded video – it reminds us of viewing old VHS security camera footage. The footage would probably be just about good enough to give you and your insurance company a view of an accident, but you wouldn’t want to rely on it if you needed to get the number plate of someone who failed to stop after an accident, for example.  

Photo quality isn’t too shabby. If you had to take quick snaps of your car after a daytime accident, the 101 Go would suffice. Detail is reasonable, although the shots we took on a cloudy afternoon veered towards over-exposure, so the camera might struggle in really bright conditions.  

Overall, the 101 Go just about covers the basics. If you want a safety net to prove that you didn’t cause an accident, this dashcam should just about suffice. However, there’s no GPS for location or speed data and no PC software, and the video quality is basic. This camera is inexpensive, but is the bare minimum in terms of both features and price - we'd rather find the extra £30 for the Mio MiVue 518.     

Adobe has been the king of creative software for over two decades. Creative Suite, which includes Photoshop and Illustrator, represents the industry standard for media professionals, and technologies such as Flash and Acrobat Reader have infiltrated almost every part of our daily computing experience. Now, with a little help from stylus-maker Adonit, Adobe is trying its hand at hardware with the Ink and Slide stylus and smart ruler. They're not aimed at your typical art hobbyist, though, as they're only compatible with an iPad (either a fourth generation iPad 4 or later, an iPad Mini or iPad Mini with Retina Display) and you'll need a Creative Cloud membership to get the most out of each product.

The latter isn't mandatory, as you can still use them with Adobe's Line, Sketch and Draw apps without one, but you'll be missing out on all its cloud capabilities, such as accessing your personal colour themes on the move, the Cloud Clipboard to carry on working in Illustrator when you get back home, and sharing your drawings online.

Both products are impeccably made. Built from hydro-formed aluminium, the Ink's twisting triangular chassis is comfortable to hold and its meagre 20.3g weight isn't that much heavier than a traditional pen. We particularly like its USB charging station, which magnetically snaps on to the end of the pen and has a small LED band which cycles through the colours of rainbow when it's fully charged, providing a classy bit of visual feedback to let you know when to take it off the mains.

Setting up the Ink is easy. In Adobe Sketch, for instance, you simply open up the pen menu in the top right corner of the app, hold the pen down on the screen, and it connects automatically via Bluetooth. You can also personalise the Ink to flash a particular colour when you turn it on as well as choose from a set of palm preferences to match how you physically hold it. You can also enable palm rejection so you can rest your hand on the screen.

^ As well as a charging dock, the Ink comes with a tubular carry case which clips in just above the LED light, so you can still see whether it's finished charging or not

It wasn't quite such smooth sailing when we tried the Ink out for ourselves, though, as the palm rejection tended to be a bit hit and miss and we often found the pen simply wasn't up to the task of accurately reproducing very small, fine pen strokes. Admittedly, we have quite a fine sketch style where we like to draw the same line multiple times, but we found this very difficult to do with the Ink as we simply couldn't get it to draw additional lines anywhere near the first one. Other times, it simply didn't register at all.

We suspect part of the problem lies in having to specify how you hold the pen, as we always found our grip tended to shift positions depending on what we were drawing. Switching palm preferences did help on some occasions, but having to constantly swap back and forth is a hassle and hardly makes for a very user-friendly drawing experience.

^ When you set up the Ink, you can choose your own personal colour to light up at the end of the pen

As a result, it constantly felt like we were wrestling our drawings into shape rather than effortlessly composing them on the fly. To be fair, this is a problem we've encountered with other styli as well. They're fine for broad brush strokes, but smaller, more precise movements are more problematic. It's still a bit disappointing, though, as we were hoping the Ink would finally be able to provide the same kind of easy, intuitive drawing experience as our own dedicated desktop-based drawing tablet. Sadly, this isn't the case.

Of course, you're not simply buying a stylus, as you also get the Slide ruler. When you place it on the screen, it automatically generates two lines either side of it, allowing you to draw perfectly straight lines with the Ink. Tapping the button on the front will bring up different shaped stamps as well, such as circles, triangles and squares, which you can then stencil round with the Ink. Each stamp isn't set in stone either, as you can alter the shape of each one with your fingers by holding and pinching certain sides - turning a circle into an oval or a square into a rectangle, for example.

It works best in Adobe Line, which can generate two-point, isometric and axonometric perspective grids as well as graph paper. Here, the Slide will snap to certain end points on the lines you draw, making it easier to connect them with others along the same sight lines. The same applies to the Slide's stencils as well, as alignment grids will appear to keep everything in perspective.

Like the Ink, though, the Slide was a little bit fiddly to use. Sometimes it didn't register the ruler at all, while other times it thought it was a stylus, so we had to keep erasing the accidental lines it had drawn by rewinding the image's progress bar, which you can do with a simple three-finger swipe. It's also arguably slightly superfluous unless you do a lot of architectural drawing.

^ You can use the Slide in Adobe Sketch as well. All you need to do is press the front button to cycle through the available stencils

Taken together, Adobe's Ink and Slide feel very expensive for what they are, especially considering the number of issues we had with both products. The Ink is no worse than other styli out there, such as Wacom's Intuos Creative Stylus 2, but the additional Slide does add a hefty premium on to its overall price. It wouldn't be so bad if you could buy them separately, but as a pair, the Ink & Slide is only worth buying if you're in desperate need of a digital ruler.

The Leef Bridge 3.0 is a compact USB flash drive with both a microUSB connector and a full-size USB3 connector. It's designed for smartphone and tablet users who don't have enough room on their phones' internal storage but who still want to watch movies or TV on the move.

It'll only work with phones that support USB on-the-go (OTG), meaning iPhone users are out of luck. Most modern Android handsets support USB OTG natively, while others require you to download an app. There's no real consistency to which phones work and which don't, and not all phones' manuals or websites will tell you if the protocol is supported. If you're running Android and you know your phone doesn't support USB OTG you might be able to use a third-party application such as ES File Explorer or Nexus Media Importer. To check whether your device supports the Leef natively, look at this page on the Leef website.

The Bridge 3.0 Dual USB is a tiny device - just 37mm long when closed and 20mm wide. In its own right, therefore, it's a handily compact little USB drive.

While outright performance isn't hugely important here, it's worth noting that  speeds from the USB3 end are curiously slow, particularly the write speeds. Small write and read speeds were 18.4MB/s and 2.6MB/s respectively, while large files were written at 12MB/s and read at 88MB/s. It's very strange to see such a gulf in performance between read and write speeds.

Speeds into your mobile device will vary and - this is important - extremely high quality videos will struggle to play on certain devices. If you're going to be watching videos directly from your Leef, make sure they're in a format that doesn't require a fast transfer speed. We'd recommend 720p or lower just to be sure.

There are much cheaper similar devices available on the market, though, and £25 for 16GB of storage is rather steep. However, the Leef's saving grace is that there aren't many dual USB drives this small and even fewer that have USB3 support. 

Overall, the Leef Bridge 3.0 is an extremely handy USB drive for low-capacity smartphones and tablets. While performance isn't stellar and write speeds are curiously slow, its compact size is enough to make it a useful buy for owners of smartphones and tablets with only a small amount of storage.

Productivity mice generally aren't very exciting, with a standard selection of buttons and perhaps a relaxed, hand-friendly ergonomic design. The Logitech MX Master certainly fulfills those expectations, but goes several steps further to produce one of the most feature-packed wireless mice we've seen.

Design and ergonomics

This mouse is not designed for left-handed use, but for those who are right-handed, it's extremely comfortable and is shaped perfectly so your hand simply rests on it without having to grip at all. It's heavier than a basic wired mouse at 145g, but we never felt this to be a burden. The only change we'd make is to the dark brown metallic accents, which are a bit drab for our liking. A choice of colours would be welcome.

Connectivity

The MX Master comes equipped with low-power Bluetooth 4.0 to connect to laptops, tablets and even smartphones. It also comes with a tiny USB receiver for desktop PCs and other devices without Bluetooth built in.

The MX Master can be paired with up to three devices simultaneously: you simply press the 1/2/3 button on the bottom of the mouse to change which device you want to control. If you have multiple computers on your desk - such as a laptop and a desktop - you could have one mouse for both of them, with switching between them practically instantaneously (aside from the slightly awkward act of turning the mouse over). It's a niche feature but one that multi-device multitaskers will love.

It can't be connected via wires, but the non-removable battery is charged over Micro USB. The claimed battery life is 40 days, and at the end of a week eight-hour days, the battery was still 4/5ths full.

Buttons

There are seven standard buttons on the MX Master, with all but the left and right mouse buttons configurable using the Logitech Options software. In addition to the standard left, right and middle clicks, there's a fourth button on the top of the mouse that, by default, toggles between ratchet scrolling and freewheel scrolling (see below).

The two buttons on the side are assigned to back and forward by default, for quickly navigating between pages. They are placed one above the other, but thanks to a sharp, protruding design they're easy to hit and you're unlikely to get confused between the two after a few minutes' use. Finally, there's a button placed exactly where your thumb rests, although we found its action to be a little too firm; it's not as easy to press as the rest of the buttons. Its default setting in Windows is to show Windows's built-in alt+tab application switcher. In Mac OS X it handles desktop switching, Mission Control and App Expose, as long as you have Logitech Options installed.

The buttons aren't just limited to single actions, either. Logitech Options allows you to set up gestures in combination with a button press, so, for example, you could hold down the thumb button and move the mouse left or right to snap a window to the left or right of the desktop. Or you could set a left movement to go back a track in your music player, and a right movement to skip ahead. Setting up buttons just the way you like them is easy, and it means you can make tailor the mouse to exactly the sort of work you do.

Scroll wheels

Unusually, the MX Master has two scroll wheels: one in the standard position atop the mouse, and a thumb scroller on the right. The top scroll wheel has two modes: ratchet scrolling and freewheeling. You're not limited to one at a time, though: fling the scroll wheel with enough force, and the ratchet will disengage, allowing the scroll wheel to freely spin. This works brilliantly in huge documents, email inboxes and on busy social networks, when you want to scroll somewhere fast, but aren't sure exactly where you want to stop. You can change the sensitivity of this option - called SmartShift - in the Options software.

The thumb scroller is most useful for wide spreadsheets, scrolling sideways in a conventional manner. You can configure it to handle other actions such as going backwards and forwards in web browsers, changing volume or switching applications, too.

Laser

The MX Master uses a Darkfield Laser sensor, meaning it can be used on shiny surfaces and even glass tables. It has a maximum dpi of 1600, which should be enough for even the twitchiest of workers, but the sensitivity can be lowered in 200dpi increments via the Options software if you prefer greater accuracy.

In our testing, had no problem using the mouse on shiny surfaces, windows and standard mousemats; the mouse felt equally responsive on all, so you have the freedom to choose whatever mousemat surface you prefer. Input lag, often a problem with wireless mice, didn't appear to be an issue either - playing first-person shooters in our lunch breaks felt like lag-free experiences and we were able to put plenty of lead downrange without issue. Only the twitchiest of arena FPS players and MMO players after as many macro buttons as possible will need to look elsewhere.

Conclusion

The Logitech MX Master is one of the best pure computer mice we've ever used. With a flexible and configurable design, faultless ergonomics (at least for right-handed users) and precision engineering, we find it hard to imagine there's a better mouse for getting things done. It's expensive, yes, and the lack of any wired option may put off gamers after the fastest response times and absolutely no input lag, but the productivity and comfort gains it provides are worth it.

When buying a new computer, it shouldn't be too much to expect that your new PC, fresh out of the box, should be running as fast as it ever will. And yet, you won’t find a single computer that doesn’t have additional software installed on it. But, just how bad is the problem? To find out, we took a set of laptops off the shelf to find out how much software was preinstalled, how much disk space it took up, if any of it was dangerous and what, if any, impact on performance the bloatware had. Before we dive into the details of our testing, we’ll first take a look at why manufacturers pre-install software, the categories of software that are installed and what you can do about them.

Why is bloatware installed?

Manufacturers will tell you that they pre-load this software purely out of the goodness of their hearts, giving users "more choice" and a "better experience". This is a nice thing to imagine but is completely untrue in most cases. Much of the software pre-loaded comes as part of commercial agreements between software makers and laptop manufacturers. This can either be because the manufacturer is paid to put the software on, or because there’s a revenue sharing deal in place: sign up for some security software, for example, and your computer’s manufacturer will get a cut. In short, it’s a way for PC and laptop manufacturers to make a bit more cash.

While bloatware has largely been seen as an issue of annoyance, the Lenovo Superfish debacle also showed that pre-installed software could also pose a real security risk. Superfish is a crafty piece of software that would inject advertising into web searches and other pages. As well as the moral implications of stuffing its users’ laptops full of adverts, Superfish also made secure SSL web connections insecure due to a dodgy component that it installed.

^Superfish injects extra advertising content into web searches

In the end, the firm not only issued an apology but also provided users with a removal tool (see how to remove Superfish for more details) on how to remove the software, but the incident put bloatware into sharp focus.

Regardless of whether bloatware is actually dangerous, there’s no getting away from the fact that it is annoying and it does take up resources. We recommend that any new PC is cleared of useless software as the number-one job, but you have to know what’s safe to remove and what should be left alone. We’ve categorised bloatware into its main categories with advice for each type helping you clean down your computer.

Security software

Security software is one of the biggest culprits of bloatware, as laptop manufacturers can make good money if you convert the trial version of the software into a paid-for subscription. The warning in that statement is that manufacturers care more about how much money they can make then they do providing you with the best protection.

As such, it’s fair to see that the majority of free security software trials are not worth the bother. Aside from the poor protection they may actually offer, security software is also some of the most annoying.

You'll typically get a free trial of security software that activates when you first switch on your machine. You might appreciate the added security but, it can be extremely overbearing right from the off. Some software will create popups every time you insert a new USB storage device (until you turn the warnings off) and, in particularly extreme cases, you'll get a notification whenever it detects a new device connects to your network.

It can also cause problems with software, too. On several occasions, security software has interfered with the installation of our benchmarking software and games on Steam without any warning or explanation, leaving us to troubleshoot problems while simultaneously scratching our heads.

Unless you have an active subscription to the security suite that's been pre-installed on your laptop, you should make uninstalling it a top priority. First, you should download a more competent replacement, but do not install it at this point, as you can’t have two security packages running simultaneously. Our guide to internet security software lists all of the best paid-for and free software currently available.

Once you’ve got your new AV software downloaded, you can safely remove the old software. The best way to do this is to go through the Programs and Features function in Windows 8 and 8.1 or Add/Remove programs in Windows 7. Scroll down to the security software in question and double click, at which point you'll be given access to an uninstaller. You may have to uninstall several elements of the software to completely get rid of it.

Once the free software has been removed, you can run the installer for your new software. This will make sure that your computer is protected and can defend itself against internet attacks.

Modern UI/Start screen apps

If you're a regular visitor to Windows 8.1's controversial Modern UI Start screen, you'll probably find several applications here installed by your computer’s manufacturer. Due to their nature, these tend not to be so annoying (they can’t launch automatically, or interfere with the rest of your computer), but they do eat up disk space.

These don't appear in the traditional Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features windows and instead must be removed from within the Start screen. It can be done simply by right-clicking on the offending item and selecting Uninstall. All of these apps are safe to remove.

Branded services and utilities

PC manufacturers will often load a computer up with dozens of additional utilities. Some are designed to make using your computer easier, others are designed to get you to sign up for premium services, such as cloud storage, with the manufacturer taking their cut. Other bits of software are slightly more nefarious, such as web toolbars that change your search engine and home page (again, the PC manufacturer gets paid for this).

The difficulty here is that in the midst of the annoying software, there are genuinely useful bits of software that you shouldn’t remove. The best thing to do is go to Programs and Features in Windows 8 or Add/Remove Programs in Windows 7. Sort the list of installed applications by Publisher and leave any bits of software alone created by your PC’s manufacturer, at least for now. It should be safe to remove all other applications from your computer, once you’ve read our advice on Drivers below.

It’s better to remove too little when you start. As you use your computer more and more, note down the name of any software that’s too annoying and displays too many pop-up messages. Once you’ve got a good list together you can find this software and uninstall it, regardless of who the publisher is.

Drivers

Driver software is genuinely very useful and will make your computer work properly, so don’t remove any of this. The most common drivers are branded Realtek, AMD, Nvidia, Intel, Qualcomm and Broadcom, but there may be others depending on the model of your laptop.

Also, look out for device-specific drivers, such as ones for your keyboard, which will make sure that all of the shortcut buttons are working properly. These include device-specific button mappings (such as alt-key commands) and audio software that might provide enhancements to sound designed for your device's speakers.

Finally, look out for any manufacturer-provided update software. This will download the latest driver and software updates for your computer automatically.

Links and uninstalled software

You’ll often find that a new computer has various bookmarks, desktop shortcuts and trial software installers on it. These generally can’t cause any harm, but they’re annoying and eat up disk space. Feel free to delete anything like this that you find.

Beware of Factory reset

Most laptops have their bloatware built into the factory reset, so attempting to do this will simply reinstall all the apps you were hoping to get rid of. An alternative is to create a new image of your computer in its new pristine state, using an application such as Acronis TrueImage.

How to install clean software

Free software can be just as bad as the rubbish that PC manufacturers put on your computer, with many applications also installing addition toolbars and bits of bloatware. For that reason, when it comes to installing free software we recommend using Ninite. This clever utility automatically downloads and installs spyware-free software. Check out our guide on how to use Ninite for more information.

Performance testing

To see exactly what effect bloatware has on your system, we rounded up Windows 8 laptops from five of the world's most popular manufacturers to see which software they've snuck onto their machines. The laptops vary in specification and it's entirely possible that different models from the same manufacturer will have different levels of bloatware depending on the type of users they're targeting.

The impact on performance will vary, too. Cheaper laptops have a much smaller tolerance to bloatware because of their less powerful processors, smaller hard disks and small amounts of RAM.

First, we took a look at each laptop to find out what was installed and the impact it had on system resources. We noted down how many needless apps and web links were installed, and then we worked out how much disk space these took up. Next we used Task Manager to find out how much RAM the additional bits of software. To see how annoying each bloatware load was, we noted down the type of pop-ups and dialog boxes we encountered. The table below gives you the figures for each of the laptops.

As this table shows, Acer's super cheap E3-111 from 2014 is worst affected by bloatware. It has a lot of additional software pre-installed, with 38 applications, Start screen items and web links pre-installed, all of which take up 1.7GB of disk specs.

The laptop also comes with some reasonably useful video and photo software from CyberLink, but they're old versions that were out of date before the laptop went on sale. The vast majority of applications are branded by Acer, but there are also links to LoveFilm and eBay, as well as a Netflix Start screen app for good measure.

Asus had pre-installed 28 items on its laptop, although most of them were Start screen apps, such as for Twitter and Netflix. As such, it was one of the least annoying computers to use out-of-the-box. Even so, cleaning up the laptop shaved three seconds off of its boot time.

The Dell XPS 13 was loaded with applications, but some of its software - such as Dell Backup and Recovery - should actually be useful to a lot of people. Toshiba's KIRA business ultrabook had was fairly light on unwanted extras, and while its McAfee installation and links to various web services including eBay and SkyScanner were par for the course, the Chroma Tuner software that runs on startup decided it was a good idea to give the screen a reddish tinge throughout our time testing the laptop. Bundling a piece of software that was so consistently irritating deserves some credit.

HP's Stream 11 has the smallest amount of storage space of any of the devices we tested, with just 32GB of eMMC storage. The 0.8GB of HP software that's been added could become very bothersome as you fill up the drive, so nipping the stuff you don't want early on is important.

With all of the laptops, a big issue was annoying pop-ups from software. McAfee’s software is the worst (which every laptop had pre-installed), but other utilities also let us know that they were there.

Performance

As well as being irritating, we wanted to know if bloatware could affect performance. To check this we ran our standard benchmarks on each laptop out-of-the-box, with the bloatware loaded. We then repeated the benchmarks after we’d cleaned each laptop and made it bloatware free. You can see the results in the graph below.

We also tested boot times using BootRacer. We measured start up speeds with the laptop running at factory defaults. We then cleaned each laptop and measured its startup times without any unnecessary software installed. You can see the results of this in the graph below.

Generally, bloatware didn’t make any difference to general performance with our laptops, bar a one-point increase for the Acer E3-111. However, it’s important to point out that in many cases this is because the pre-installed software sits their idle while the computer is busy, such as running benchmarks. As soon as the PC is idle, it gives the software an opportunity to run. We found that MacAfee LiveSafe was the worst of the bunch, taking up to 70% of CPU usage on one of our laptops, while it scanned for viruses.

Startup times are much more affected by this software, as lots of it loads in the background, eating up precious resources and wasting time. Cleaning out our computers generally improved matters. As we expected, the biggest improvement came from the slowest laptop, the Acer E3-111, as its slow processor can get overloaded by having to load all of the bloatware.

Conclusion

We didn’t detect any spyware or dubious software on any of our laptops, which is good news, but bloatware is still a big problem for Windows laptops. Generally, performance isn’t affected when you’re running processor-intensive tasks, but as soon as your computer goes idle, we noticed that some utilities started eating precious resources.

On top of that, we found gigabytes of software of some computers, which is a total waste of hard disk space; as is utilities wasting RAM. Startup times were also affected, with computers having to load bloatware while they startup. As we expected, the biggest impact comes on the slowest laptops. Their slow processors can’t cope with the additional software as well, making them feel a lot slower than they really are.

Regardless of how quick your computer is, bloatware is annoying and fills your computer full of rubbish. We recommend carefully cleaning out the unnecessary applications to free up disk space and RAM, before choosing which applications and utilities you want to install yourself. Our guide on how to install spyware-free software using Ninite is great for installing free software.

If there’s one thing that everyone wants in a new mobile device, it’s a longer battery. That goal appears to be next on Apple’s agenda, as a series of job adverts spotted by AppleInsider shows.

From the range of positions that are open, it’s clear that Apple is looking at both hardware improvements and software changes to make its devices more efficient. These kinds of improvements make a lot of sense, as Jony Ive has said that Apple wouldn’t not simply just use bigger batteries.

To that end, Apple is looking for battery pack engineering manager, a cell engineer and an electrical engineer. These kinds of positions may well be associated with developing the battery packs used by the new MacBook, which have to be layered in order to fit into the tiny chassis.

On top of that, Apple is also hiring an iOS battery life software engineer, with the job advert asking, “Would you enjoy developing real-time analysis mechanisms to triage and mitigate battery life issues?”

From the advert, we can see that Apple’s strategy is to make the operating system as power-efficient as possible, eking more time out of the hardware. It’s likely that this kind of improvement would make its way into the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 9.

One of the benefits of this type of approach is that any efficiencies Apple can create should be able to be implemented on older hardware. In other words, people upgrading from iOS 8.2 could find that their iPhone or iPad lasts longer.

As well as making software changes, Apple will continue to make its hardware more efficient, shrinking down the components inside. With the iPhone 7, due out next year, we could see a big improvement in battery life through a combination of low-power hardware and more efficient software. 

After Apple announced the iPad on the 27^th January 2010, a lot of people dismissed it as just a big iPod and that nobody wanted a tablet. When it launched on April 3^rd 2010, five years ago, all the doubters were shown to be wrong and the tablet was a huge success. In fact, it holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest selling consumer electronics device, shifting 3m units in just 80 days.

With the tablet now well established, it’s hard to remember what an important device it really was. Before the iPad launched, we had tablets, but they were massively hampered by the Windows operating system they ran, which really wasn’t designed to work on touchscreen devices. It was no wonder, then, that a lot of people didn’t think that a tablet could work.

With the iPad, Apple managed to take iOS and customise and tweak it for the iPad’s 9.7in display, giving the iPhone’s experience on a bigger screen. Most importantly, Apple also got developers to make iPad-specific versions of their apps, making them work properly on the tablet.

Sounds easy, right? Yet, it took Android a long time after the iPad was launched to get a version of the OS designed to run on tablets, while apps took even longer to come; you could still argue that you still get the best app experience on the iPad, which has more than 675,000 apps designed specifically for it.

Since its launch, musicians, artists and TV presenters have used the iPad. Now, every UK MP will get an iPad Air 2 after the election. With the move to digital, parliament has estimated that it’s saved £3m a year from not having to print things out any more. With productivity apps, such as Pages, Numbers and Keynote, as well as Office for iPad, the tablet is more than just a tool for consuming media, but one for creating it too. At five years old, the iPad now has its best version yet, the slim and powerful iPad Air 2.

If there was every any doubt about the impact that the tablet has had, you only need to watch the video below. It shows Simon Pierro, the iPad magician, performing his tricks on the Ellen Show in the US.

The Nextbase 402G Professional is designed to be half-tucked behind a rear-view mirror, helping to keep it out of the driver’s field of vision. That’s all well and good, but there are features – such as the driver fatigue warnings – which require you to see the screen, so we’re not entirely convinced that it’s best placed to where the screen is obscured. You can choose to blank out the screen while driving, or have it display a speedometer and compass, which seems faintly pointless.  

The 402G isn’t just a step up in screen size from its stablemate, the 101 Go; it’s also a step up in video resolution. The 402G captures Full HD video at 30 frames per second and the difference is immediately noticeable. There is a little distortion in fast-moving footage, but the overall picture quality is much cleaner: you can make out the number plates of cars travelling in the opposite direction while you're driving at 50mph in daylight, if you use PC software such as VLC to play the footage back frame by frame. 

Daytime footage

Night-time footage is reasonably clear, too. You’ll have no problem identifying the cause of an accident, although car number plates tend to be a little over-exposed and hard to make out. The 402G doesn’t match the sparkling video quality of the Roadhawk DC-2 or Go Pro HERO4 Silver, but it’s plenty good enough for most purposes.   

The 402G comes with a CD containing the company’s Driving Recorder Player software, which is also downloadable from the company’s website. This application uses the GPS data captured by the dashcam to plot your position on a Google Map as you play back the footage, and also reveals other crucial data, such as the speed at which you were travelling and the direction of impact (based on the camera's built-in motion sensors), which could be extremely helpful in piecing together an accident investigation. You can even enter your number plate into the device and have that embedded in the video, which might be useful for business users installing these units into a fleet of cars. 

Night-time footage

The camera's screen can be used for instant playback at the scene of an accident, helping police identify the guilty party on the spot. The display's 960x240 resolution is just about good enough to make out the number plate of the car in front, and there’s an integrated speaker for audio evidence. There's also a mini-HDMI port on the right of the camera and an HDMI cable in the box to help you play back footage on a TV straight from the camera.  

The 402G’s menu system is reasonably simple to operate, although with three large buttons either side of the screen, it’s a little baffling why Next Base has chosen to put the OK button – which is used to confirm selections in the menu – awkwardly out of the way on the top of the device.  

We’re also disappointed that a camera at the premium end of the market doesn’t come with a memory card supplied. You’ll need to add another £10 or so to your budget for a microSD card, if you don’t have one lying around. Overall, the 402G is a very competent device with a few nagging flaws, which just keep it from an award.   

While we've been big fans of Roku's streaming devices, including the Roku 3 and Roku Streaming Stick, one complaint we've levelled against them was the lack of a search feature. A feather in Roku's cap is certainly its extensive support for apps (or as Roku call them 'Channels') including a host of on-demand services including BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, Demand Five and All4 and premium services such as Sky's Now TV.

However, the inability to perform a basic search meant you had to manually navigate through densely populated channel categories to find the content you wanted. Further adding to the frustration was the inability to add new channels via the web interface in the UK, which would have alleviated the issue.

Today, Roku has at least made strides to tackle the problem with its new update that will be hitting all of Roku's devices by early May. The new software update will introduce 'Roku Search', which brings with it the ability to search for individual channels, so if you know there's an obscure channel you want to add, such as the multitude of foreign channels available, it will be much easier to now find.

Additionally, Roku Search will also be a new content discovery platform allowing you to search for content to watch based on actors and directors or to search specifically for movies or television shows. Content such as films or television shows are listed based on the channel they're available through and it makes it easy to see if you need to add a new channel for access or if a separate subscription is needed, such as for services including Netflix.

The new update also brings with it 'Roku Feed', which will allow users to subscribe to movies that are coming soon. This pulls together updates into a constantly updating timeline-style feed so that you know when content becomes available on any of Roku's channels, as well as letting you know about changes in pricing if it's available for rent. 

We were given an advance look at the new search functionality and Roku Feed and it immediately overcame our main issues with Roku's software. We could see how it would improve the user experience making it easier to find the content you wanted to watch and removing some of the frustration of navigating through a lot of content. The new search functionality will be rolled into the Roku app updates for iOS and Android, which will also make inputting search terms easier.

New Roku 2

Available in early May, Roku has also announced an updated version of the Roku 2. The Roku 2 matches the internal specifications and performance of the Roku 3 but comes with a less fully-featured remote control that is devoid of the motion sensing capabilities of the Roku 3's. It will, however, include new shortcut buttons to popular channels such as Netflix and YouTube. The new Roku 2 will be available for £69.99 when it launches. We'll be sure to give it a review when it's available as well as give more hands-on time with the new software update.

EE has launched its Wi-Fi Calling service, allowing its customers to make and receive phone calls and text messages without a mobile connection. The service, first announced last summer by Apple at the iPhone 6 launch, had been due to launch towards the end of 2014, but will now be available to EE customers from Friday April 10th, on a selected range of handsets. We spoke to EE to find out everything you need to know about the new service.

How does Wi-Fi calling work?

Wi-Fi calling is designed to be seamless, letting you make and receive phone calls and standard SMS messages over a wireless network in the usual way. That means that you don't need to fire up a different app, change any settings or do anything differently to how you do now. Any wireless network will do, so you could be at home or on the tube using the underground's Wi-Fi.

The news will be welcome to mobile users who live in thick-walled houses, basements or deep in the countryside where mobile reception is patchy. EE-funded research conducted in March found that one in ten people have at least one room in their house where there's no mobile signal, a figure that rises to 15% for those living in rural areas. People living in these so-called mobile "not-spots" have previously relied on third-party chat and calling services - such as WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger and Skype - to make reliable calls using fixed line internet connections. They can now use the built-in diallers and SMS message apps on their phones without requiring a third-party service. 

How is Wi-Fi calling charged?

Calls and text messages are charged in the same way as if you were connected to the standard phone network. If you've got inclusive minutes and texts, these are reduced by usage; anything out of bundle is charged at standard rates. As such, Wi-Fi calling is a method of improving phone service, not a way of making cheap calls. If you want to make cheaper phone calls abroad, you'll still need to install a third-party app, such as Skype, to do so. You'll also need a price plan that supports Wi-Fi calling, with pay-monthly and business customers only geting the service.

Can you make emergency calls?

EE has had its Wi-Fi calling certified by the emergency services, so you can make calls to 999 no matter whether you're using a wireless network or the cellular one. Alternative Wi-Fi calling apps, such as Skype, are not certified for 999 calls and are barred from making them.

How is roaming handled?

Wi-Fi calling is disabled when you go abroad. EE can detect your IP address and, when you're on a foreign Wi-Fi network, it can disable the service. The main reason for this is that going abroad adds another layer of confusion into the mix. It's possible if your phone were to switch from Wi-Fi to cellular, that you could even get charged twice for a call. When you go on holiday, you're switched back to using standard roaming.

Which phones are supported?

Wi-Fi calling needs to be supported in both hardware and software, which means that only a limited number of phones support it at the moment. At launch, only the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and Microsoft Lumia 640 will be available with Wi-Fi Calling. Other handsets may get upgrades while newer models should be launched that support the technology out-of-the-box. EE claims that 5m customers will be able to use Wi-Fi calling by summer 2015.

What about the iPhone 6?

In a blog post in early March, EE said it was "working with Apple" to get the service rolled out to the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, while at the iPhone 6 launch Apple even displayed an EE logo to show that the network would support Wi-Fi calling. With the latest announcement from EE, there's no information about any of these handsets.

We have it from other sources that Apple needs to roll out iOS 8.3 to support Wi-Fi calling on EE, which means that we'll see the iPhone models mentioned above support the technology this month; the iPhone 5 and below will not support Wi-Fi calling.

Is Wi-Fi calling only for EE?

Wi-Fi calling is not an EE technology, but it's up to a network to implement the technology. Vodafone currently has a similar service in the works: its website currently states it'll be launching this summer.

Is Wi-Fi calling any good?

Wi-Fi calling is a great thing to have and will eliminate those annoying black-spots we all encounter (provided there's a wireless network within range). This makes it much more convenient than previous attempts at improving mobile reception, such as Vodafone Suresignal, which required you to install a tiny 3G cell in your own home and connect it to your broadband network.

As Wi-Fi calling works seamlessly, it's also much more convenient than using a third-party VoIP app, such as Skype. The one minor annoyance is that Wi-Fi calling doesn't work when you're abroad, although we understand the reasons why.

Kobo has announced its new Glo HD eBook reader with a 300dpi screen that puts it on an equal footing - at least in terms of resolution - with Amazon's most expensive eReader, the Kindle Voyage. The device will have a screen resolution of 1,448x1,072 pixels, which just edges ahead of the Voyage's 1,430x1,080 panel. 

In addition to a higher resolution screen - up from the 1,024x768 resolution screen on the base Glo model - there's also more storage, 4GB instead of 2 GB, which is a significant increase for those who buy huge author complete collections and reference books. However, it doesn't have a micro SD card slot, which is something the Glo did have. There aren't any buttons on the device aside from the power switch: all page turns are controlled using the touchscreen.

Despite significantly boosted specifications over the base Kobo Glo model, the Glo HD is only around £20 more expensive with an RRP of £110 in the UK. This makes it £59 cheaper than the Kindle Voyage and £1 more than the Kindle Paperwhite. It's also £30 cheaper than the bath-proof Kobo Aura H2O, which is larger at 6.8 inches and can survive 30 minutes of being submersed in water.

Take a look at our Amazon Kindle comparison guide

It's a little thicker than Amazon's Voyage, though: its 9.2mm thickness will feel a little chunkier than the 7.6mm Kindle Voyage, but around the same as the 9.1mm Kindle Paperwhite. At a featherweight 180g, it weighs 26g less than the Paperwhite and 6g more than the Voyage. Battery life is claimed to be as long as two months, although this only allows for 30 minutes of reading per day with the screen light switched off. The "ComfortLight" screen light is adjustable, although it doesn't appear to automatically adjust based on lighting conditions and must be switched manually.

From the press images supplied, the Kobo Glo HD is hardly the prettiest eBook reader available on the market, with fairly chunky looking bezels on all corners. However, if a print-like screen resolution and lightness are your top priorities but you don't want to spent £169 on the Kindle Voyage, this could be an attractive alternative. It's available from June 1st in the UK.

Visitors to adult websites may be forced to provide proof of age if the Conservatives form the next UK government. In a post on Facebook over the weekend, UK culture secretary Sajid Javid stated that if elected, the Conservatives would "legislate to put online hardcore pornography behind effective age verification controls" in order to protect children from adult images.

In practice, this would be using using a third-party such as a credit ratings firm, or even going as far as creating an entirely new digital ID system for UK citizens. In an interview with the BBC, Javid said that the electronic ID system in use in countries such as Finland was a relevant example.

Such a system would require cooperation from the websites themselves, with UK ISPs asked to block access to websites that fail to comply to the regulations. Any service providers that failed to enforce this could be fined under these plans.

Exactly how this would work is unclear, especially given the relative ease with which internet users worldwide can access blocked websites with copyright-infringing content through the use of proxies, VPNs or alternative URLs.

Emma Carr, director of civil liberties organisation Big Brother Watch, told Expert Reviews that trying to regulate websites hosted outside of the UK would be an uphill struggle: “With the vast majority of sites that that would need age verification being hosted outside of the UK, it wouldn’t be possible to enforce this measure across the board," she said. "It is therefore unclear why politicians think this, rather than parent controlled filters, is the solution.”

Furthermore, the privacy implications of requiring a third-party authentication of identity in order to access websites most users would rather keep private, are very much in question.

"We do not want to prevent adults from accessing legal content but we do want to protect our children from harmful material, so they are free to develop a healthy attitude to sex and relationships," Javid said.

Porn blocking has been near the top of the technology side of the political agenda for a couple of years, with the government successfully mandating the use of opt-out adult content filters for all UK internet customers.

Last year, online rights organisation the Open Rights Group found that online filters were massively overblocking websites, with up 20% of the websites included in its study blocked by ISPs.

Managing the location of applications on screen is one of Windows's strongest suits. However, there are some great ways to make it even easier thanks to hidden keyboard shortcuts and some clever third-party software. In this guide, we'll show you Windows's built-in features as well as how use DisplayFusion to go even further.

Windows shortcuts

There are several handy shortcuts in Windows 7, 8 and 10 that might satisfy your needs if you have a single Full HD monitor. All three operating systems have some shared features, although some of the less obvious additions differ between each.

Aero snap

Using the mouse: Since Windows 7, users have been able to "snap" their windows to the left and right of the screen, allowing you to easily place two windows side-by-side. This can be done by simply dragging the title bar of a window to the left or right of the screen until the cursor hits the edge; a guideline will appear and, when you let go, the window will resize so it fills exactly half of the screen.

Windows 10 adds a new feature: you can drag a window into the corner of the screen so it takes up a quarter of the space. Handily, the OS will also pop up some suggestions of windows you can put in the remaining space.

Using keyboard shortcuts: Alternatively, there are some handy keyboard shortcuts. The following shortcuts work in Windows 7, 8 and 10.

• Windows key + left/right arrows: snap a window to the left or right of the screen
• Windows  key + up: maximise a window
• Windows key + down: restore a full-size window, press again to minimise
• Windows key+shift + left/right arrows: move a window to the next monitor to the left or right

Taskbar and Task manager

Taskbar commands are a little harder to reach but they can sometimes be useful. In Windows 7 these commands can be found by right-clicking on a piece of empty taskbar in Windows 7 and 8, and additionally right-clicking in the very bottom left corner of the screen, next to the Start menu icon.

You can stack windows on top of one another, which is useful for monitors in portrait mode. You can also choose to show windows side-by-side. This action changes depending on how many windows you have open (not minimised): if you have up to three windows open, they'll sit side-by-side, and if you have four they each get a quarter of the screen each. Any more, and things start to get messy, so this option isn't very predictable. You can also choose to have windows cascaded, one on top of the other like a stack of cards in Solitaire.

You can also go into task manager and select multiple programs and clicking on several while also holding down the ctrl button. Right-click on the last program you select, and you'll be able to arrange these windows using the same options as you'd find on the taskbar.

Make your big screens easier to manage

Window management with single monitors with common resolutions such as Full HD is easy enough in Windows 7 and 8, but as soon as you throw high resolutions such as 2,560x1,440 and 3,840x2,160 and start toying with strange aspect ratios such as 21:10, snapping a window so it fills up half a screen is a big waste of desktop space. Higher resolution monitors can easily handle upwards of four legible windows on screen simultaneously and wide screens can manage at least three, if not six on the high resolution models.

Some monitor manufacturers ship their own software to make this easier, but it's often a bit buggy and limited in terms of features, so we recommend spending a little money on some third-party software. DisplayFusion is a powerful window management tool that goes a lot further than the features already found in Windows 7 and 8.

At its most basic, you can use a different wallpaper for each monitor. However, it's the advanced functions that make this piece of software truly impressive. Included in its long list of features are multi-monitor taskbars with different programs displayed on each, customisable hotkeys for managing window location and sizes and "virtual desktops" so you can split a single screen into several sections.

Split your monitor into sections

STEP 1
DisplayFusion's most powerful feature for high resolution or ultra-wide monitors is its virtual desktop tool. It can be accessed by finding DisplayFusion in the taskbar and right clicking on it.

STEP 2
Hover over Monitor Profiles and select Create/Edit Monitor Profiles. If you have multiple monitors, select the monitor you want to split and then select Splits and Padding. From this window you can add new horizontal and vertical splits, effectively making new areas that windows can fill.

To make your first split, click Horizontal Split or Vertical Split. To add more splits, click again. The area you're about to split will be highlighted in blue. You can change which area you're splitting by clicking in that area.

STEP 4
You can also add padding between splits so there's a bit of empty space between windows. For each split you can add padding to the top, bottom, left and right. When you're done, hit OK then click Save Profile on the top left of the Monitor Configuration window. Enter a name and click Apply. You can create new profiles depending on what sort of arrangement you want; you could have a different layout for web browsing and photo editing, for example.

STEP 5
Now you can start arranging windows. In order to get a window to fill the areas you've created, drag it into that area. A guide should appear, letting you know which part of the monitor it will fill.

If this doesn't work first time, move the window to the side of the monitor like you would if you were using Windows 7's standard Aero snap tools. Now you should be able to drag a window into any section of your screen and have it resize automatically to fill it. 

After a period of slight stagnation, with iterative changes to its smartphone line, it’s fair to say that Samsung’ back with a bang with its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge handsets. Made of metal and glass, with all-new internals, these new handsets are massive improvements over their predecessors. They’re also good clues as to what Samsung will do with its stylus-controlled phablet Galaxy Note range. Here we’re rounding up all of the current rumours to find out what the Note 5 has in store for us.

Release date

Samsung is a creature of habit, releasing a new model in each range at roughly the same time each year. It has always launched the Galaxy Note at IFA in September, so we’d assume that it will do the same this time around with the Note 5. IFA takes place between the 4th and the 9th September 2015, so expect the Note 5 to be launched then: Samsung usually launches at a press day before the show launches, so expect the handset to be unveiled on the 2nd or 3rd September.

What we learned from the Galaxy S6

Last year, it was the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 that proved to be the high-end flagship handset for Samsung, with a fast processor and higher-resolution screen than the Galaxy S5. This year, we suspect that things are going to be different, with the Galaxy S6 range proving to be the basis of the Note 5.

There’s also a good chance that the Note 5 will use a similar design to the Galaxy S6, with a metal body bonded to a glass rear. That would mean that the Note range would lose the soft-touch plastic rear and changeable battery. An alternative is that the Note 5 retains a similar design to the Note 4 (itself based on the Alpha), with a metal body, but a removable plastic rear.

We may also find that Samsung removes the memory card slot, as it did with the S6. While this stops people cheaply upgrading their handsets, we don’t have a problem with built-in memory: it’s more convenient and we’ve seen most big handset manufacturers move this way.

Specifications

With the Galaxy S6 range, Samsung moved away from Qualcomm and manufactured its own Exynos SoC. This 64-bit CPU has proven to be incredibly powerful and, as the first mobile chip to use a 14nm fabrication process, power efficient. It seems unlikely, given the investment it must have taken to create these chips, that Samsung would go back on itself and buy from Qualcomm again. As a result, we’re expecting the Note 5 to have the same chip as the S6.

We can also expect the Note 5 to use Samsung’s embedded package on package (ePoP) memory. This creates a single memory package that contains 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The benefit is that this design takes up less room, so there’s more room for a bigger battery, and it’s more energy efficient, improving battery life. Samsung has announced that it’s started mass-manufacturing ePoP.

“By offering our new high-density ePoP memory for flagship smartphones, Samsung expects to provide its customers with significant design benefits, while enabling faster and longer operation of multi-tasking features,” Jeeho Baek, Senior Vice President of Memory Marketing at Samsung Electronics said in a press release. “We plan to expand our line-up of ePoP memory with packages involving enhancements in performance and density over the next few years, to further add to the growth of premium mobile market.”

Screen size and resolution

There have been reports that Samsung is planning to go for a 4K screen for the Note 5, although that seems unlikely, as the higher resolution would decrease battery life. Far more likely, is that the Note 5 will have the same 2,560x1,440 resolution as the Galaxy S6 and Note 4. Size-wises, people have suggested that the handset may be 5.9in although a 5.7in display, as with the existing Note would still work well.

A bigger question is, will the phone come in two varieties, as with the S6? In other words, will we get a flat phone and a curved edge device? We’ve already had a Galaxy Note Edge, although that handset only curved on one side, and it felt like a proto-type for the Galaxy S6 Edge. There’s a chance that Samsung would move the S6 Edge’s technology into a bigger form factor, but is there really a need for this?

A curved display like this can look really nice, but it’s not necessary, adds a lot to the price and isn’t particularly stylus-friendly. Given that the stylus is one of the big selling points of the Note range, it seems unlikely that Samsung would pick a design that doesn’t work well with it.

Price

Pricing is much harder to work out, particularly when we don’t yet know what the phone is made out of. However, we can still make some informed guesses. When we reviewed the Note 4, it cost £600, which is the same as the S6 costs. Given that the Note 4 has a stylus and a bigger screen, we can expect it to cost more, so look to pay around £650 for it. If Samsung does release a Note 4 Edge, then we can expect that to cost around another £160 extra, putting the phone at around £800. That would make it extremely expensive, and would be another reason that Samsung would decide to make a flat Note 4 only.

HTC has launched a higher-specification version of its One M9, the One M9+. The handset, currently only available in China, has had its specifications boosted across the board, including a higher resolution screen and a fingerprint scanner.

The headline features include the 1,440x2,560 pixel screen, which puts it in line with the new Samsung Galaxy S6, as well as a larger 5.2in form factor. This gives it a pixel density of 565ppi, which is a big bump over the M9's 441ppi.

Want a phone that is available in the UK? Check out our best smartphones 2015 guide

There's a new octa-core MediaTek MT6795T processor, too, clocked at 2.2GHz, which is paired with 3GB of RAM. There's a 20-megapixel "duo" rear-facing camera and 4-megapixel front-facing sensors are included. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the battery remains the same size as the regular-sized phone, at 2,840mAh. With a larger, higher resolution screen, this is likely to have an impact on overall battery life.

The front-facing BoomSound speakers remain, although the grilles at the bottom are now split in half by a physical home button that includes a fingerprint scanner, much like the one found on the Galaxy S6. The handset will be available in grey, silver and gold colours

The firm has a track record of launching larger phones in Asia, including the One E9+, that never make it to European shores, so don't get your hopes up about this bigger handset appearing in UK stores.

Still, after the rather unambitious One M9 that was a very minor upgrade over last year's One M8, this larger handset looks a little more like what we were hoping for from HTC's 2015 lineup.