Maybe you want your lights to turn on just after sunset and then turn off when you usually go to bed. Or, perhaps you want Alexa to turn every light and smart plug off in and lock the doors when you’re in bed. In the morning, you can use a routine so that Alexa will greet you, tell you the weather forecast and play a particular radio station. If you have motion or other sensors, you can use those as triggers in routines, so you could get Alexa to remind your child to do their homework when motion is detected in their room after school....

If your device freezes in the middle of an update, you can feel powerless to do anything about it. Depending on which stage of the update you’re stuck on, the classic turning off and on again might not work as intended. However, all hope is not lost. There are still a few things you can try to potentially get your update completed. How to know if Windows has frozen With Windows often staying on one screen for a few minutes during the update process, it can be difficult to know whether your device has frozen or not....

If you’re looking to clean up windows and make sure it’s running its best then take a look at our guide here. Unfortunately for the search function in the taskbar, it doesn’t get to have the day off because we need to search for things. Those cat pictures aren’t going to find themselves. We’re going to show you how to fix some common problems that can cause your search bar to refuse to cooperate....

For users still on earlier versions of Windows, we’ve also included instructions on how to set up a printer in Windows 8 and 8.1. If you need to buy a printer, check out our recommendations of the best printers. Setting up a local printer in Windows 10 Before you can print, you’ll need to tell Windows that there’s a device that can receive your document. To set this up, first plug the printer into your PC with its supplied USB cable and turn it on....

This is perfectly legal in the UK although it would be courteous to inform your contacts if you’re going to be recording them. Indeed, if the third party knows they’re being recorded, that fact alone might have a beneficial outcome. There are several ways you can record your calls – some that work with landlines, some with smartphones, and a few that will operate with either – and you could probably make a start with no additional hardware or paid-for services at all....

Between 4pm and 10pm GMT today (31 March), eBay is hosting a UK-only sale (you must have a UK PayPal account and purchase from eBay.co.uk) in which items above £20 will be sold at 20% off the asking price. The maximum discount is £50, and the voucher code can be used only once – make sure you have all the items you wish to purchase in your basket before you check out....

A reader wrote in to PC Advisor wanting to transfer music from a laptop to a tablet using Cloud Player, but didn’t know how to do so. Here’s how we fixed his problem. If your music is stored in iTunes or Windows Media Player’s libraries, the importer can automatically find your music and import it. If your music is stored in other folders, then you have the option to locate them manually....

Because of its open source nature, just about every Android phone is different. Yours may already have an emoji button on the keyboard, but the chances are you’re reading this precisely because it doesn’t – or because the emoji button is missing when you fire up Twitter and try to tweet with a smiley. Well, we have the answer: it’s all in the keyboard you use. (Note: some older Android devices don’t support emojis....

While that’s just fine for dedicated machines (think best gaming laptops), it can be a struggle for more everyday device. Many PCs and laptops claim to be just as good for gaming as general productivity these days, although that’s not always the case. However, Windows 10’s built-in gaming mode can help bridge the gap by allocating more resources when gaming and turning off background processes. How to enable Game Mode on Windows 10 The process for turning on Game Mode is very simple:...

A feature within the Google Arts & Culture App, Google Art Selfie is now available in the UK. Here’s how to use it. Tech Advisor Google Art Selfie Portraits Chris Martin, Reviews Editor David Price, Macworld UK Editor Dom Preston, Entertainment & Lifestyle Editor Lewis Painter, Games Editor Matt Egan, Editorial Director Neil Bennett, Head of Experience Design Rob Woodcock, Production Editor And here I am as Apache Ben… the likeness is uncanny....

The HTC 10 is somewhat late to the new Android phones party in 2016, and the LG G5, Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge will all be on sale by the time it unveils its next flagship. But that hasn’t stopped HTC building hype around its upcoming phone, with a barrage of marketing centering around #powerof10. How to watch HTC 10 launch live stream: When is the HTC 10 coming out?...

When are the Sailing World Championships? The championships are actually already taking place – they started on 30 July and finish on 12 August 2018, with the big medal races mostly taking part over the final weekend. The previous championships took place in Santander in 2014, with the next happening in The Hague in 2022. All ten Olympic boat classes for Tokyo 2020 will be featured in the championships, which are expected to determine a lot of the qualifiers for the Tokyo tournament between the 100 nations taking part....

Real Madrid’s victory over Liverpool and Atletico’s over Marseille means the Madrid derby is coming to Tallinn, Estonia. Real will have to cope without Cristiano Ronaldo after his sensational move to Juventus in the summer transfer window. Here’s how to watch the match in the UK. When is the UEFA Super Cup? The UEFA Super Cup is on Wednesday 15 August 2018. Kick off is at 8pm UK time....

With a revolving design which enabled the laptop to transform into different modes, the HP Spectre x360 is a rival to Lenovo’s Yoga range –in particular, the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro. What we do know already, and unusually so, is that the x360 will be priced at £849 so it will be cheaper than its rival which costs £1250. HP has told PC Advisor that it will launch mid-March in the UK and the firm will also, of course, have to take on the Apple MacBook Air....

When is the HTC Desire 12 coming out? Originally expected in April, the Desire 12+ became available to buy on 31 May. Strangely, in the press release announcing its availability, the company said that pricing and availability for the smaller HTC Desire will be “confirmed in due course.” How much does the HTC Desire 12 cost? As mentioned, the Desire 12 price and release date is a mystery, but for the Desire 12+ you’re looking at a very reasonable £199 price tag....

Mini versions of phones have all but gone away with only really Sony offering this type of device with, most recently, the Xperia XZ1 Compact. The HTC U11 Life isn’t quite the same deal in terms of specs but offers some of the flagship’s design and features in a mid-range handset. It’s a bit like the HTC U Play but with some U11 bits and pieces thrown in. Read about both new HTC phones here....

So it is with the 2020 version of the MateBook X, a slim and ultraportable notebook that packs in enough power for most into one of the slickest designs I’ve seen yet. There are downsides, of course – chiefly limited ports and a webcam angle that it would be generous to call ‘unflattering’. If you can look past those however, there’s an awful lot to love here. If you can get hold of one that is, as with no official UK or US release yet, this laptop is import-only for us....

See also: Best drones with cameras Hubsan H501S X4 review: Price You can buy the Hubsan H501S X4 from GearBest for £252 ($314). Expect to pay import duty and handling fees if you’re ordering from GearBest’s China site and having it delivered to the UK. This is likely to make the total price around £300. Taken at face value, this is a good price for a drone with GPS, brushless motors, a 1080p camera and a decent controller with a built-in 3....

And besides, at just over £200/$300, even with import fees the Zero 8 looks like a seriously competitive value offering. And on paper it is – but once you turn it on and dig into the messy software experience, the cut corners come into sharp relief. Design and build First up, the Zero 8 is a fairly big phone, thanks mostly to a generous 6.85in display – that’s even bigger than the screen on the Galaxy S21 Ultra....

The bug came as part of an update that allowed users to download all of their data which was rolled out after the implementation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by European law-makers. Some users who used this feature had the passwords to their Instagram accounts displayed in a URL in their web browser. If you’re looking for advice on how to keep yourself safe online in the midst of all these data security breaches, then take a look at our guide here....