Google’s Chromebook Pixel has been revamped, now a high-end convertible laptop that is set to rival Microsoft’s Surface Book and Apple’s MacBook. The Pixelbook is a thin and light laptop that runs Chrome OS and can be folded and used as a tablet. There’s an optional stylus available, too. Read our hands-on review of the Pixelbook. When is the Google Pixelbook release date? Google’s special event took place on 4 October, and began pre-orders that very day....

Haier Ultrabook hands-on review: Design and build Haier’s first Ultrabook aims to combine design and mobility, but has it succeeded? First things first, lets discuss the design. The Haier Ultrabook is only 12mm thick, which is thinner than Apple’s MacBook Air, which measures in at 17.2mm, and weighs only 1.3kg. The combination provides users with a laptop that’s extremely portable and lightweight, ideal for those on the go. It boasts an aluminium body with black keys, and is available in both silver and gold....

You’ll be pleased to hear that there are plenty of ways to get started, whether you’re an absolute beginner with no prior experience in coding or development or someone who has dabbled in it but wants to further their knowledge. Perhaps you’re looking to learn how to build a website from the ground up or improve a website that’s already been developed by yourself or others by learning new code or software....

So, how can you actually get hold of Bitcoin? After all, your local bank branch won’t be handing out the digital currency any time soon. We show you where you can exchange your cash for the money of the brave new, online, world. If you’re not familiar with cryptocurrencies, then you might find our What is Bitcoin? and What is Ethereum? features a helpful introduction. Set up a Bitcoin wallet Before you can buy any Bitcoins, you’ll need somewhere to keep them....

If you’ve been shopping for a partner’s birthday, researching a mystery ailment, watching something you don’t want the kids to find, or asking the type of questions you’d feel silly asking an actual human on a shared Android phone or tablet, know that anyone who has access to that device can also see what you’ve been looking at. You might want to rethink that data falling into the wrong hands....

The company uses this to give you personalised maps and recommendations based on places you’ve visited, but it’s unclear where else that data might go. With online privacy concerns rarely out of the news in recent years, it’s understandable if you feel a little uneasy handing over more personal information to a big tech company. With that in mind, here’s how to delete your location history and stop Google from collecting any more....

Niantic has offered some advice about eligibility, but even with this, very few people have received one. It isn’t that the advice is wrong: it’s just way too vague. The company says you must have successfully completed a raid ‘recently’ at the gym where the EX Raid will occur, and that they occur most frequently at sponsored gyms and gyms in parks. It also recommends you have a high-level gym badge for that gym to be in with a better chance of getting an invite....

Here’s how to put an iPhone into recovery mode and get it out of recovery mode in iOS 8. (It also works for phones running iOS 7, and you can also do this with an iPad. The video above shows the process in iOS 7, which is the same as iOS 8.) First, make sure iTunes is up to date on your laptop, PC or Mac. Then, connect a USB cable to your computer, but don’t plug it into your iPad or iPhone just yet....

Here’s how to make sure everything is set up correctly. Check your sources Before you change anything, check the source of the video. If you have a 4K TV, make sure the devices that are connected can output video at 3840×2160 pixels. If they can’t your TV will have to upscale a lower-resolution stream to fill all of its pixels and while the latest models have effective processing, it will never be the same as a ‘true’ 4K image....

Using 22 templates you can pick the type of skill and then customise it to your liking. For example, with Chore Chart you can set up tasks for each member of the family and Alexa can remind people on specific Echo devices when they are due to do their chore as well as answering questions about who has chores to do today. The other skills range from games to custom Q&A to adventure and fairy tale stories....

You might be tempted to start using it as soon as possible, but a word of caution: this may mean you’re without access to some of your favourite apps or vulnerable to viruses and other malware. Frustrating as it may be, it’s worth taking a while to get your laptop, desktop PC or even tablet set up properly. It’ll save you a lot of hassle further down the line and ensure all your important data remains safe and secure....

Update 20 November 2015: Facebook has developed and is from today testing (for now in the US only) new ‘break-up tools’ that appear when you go to change your relationship status. The tools can restrict how much you see of your ex on the social network, how much they see of you, and how much other people see of the pair of you. Facebook’s relatively new ‘On This Day’ feature works much like Timehop, showing you the things you cared about enough to post, share or like, the friends you made and conversations you had on this day a year (or two- or three- or four years ago, or for however long you’ve been on Facebook)....

Android 5.0 Lollipop‘s notifications features let users see a preview of their new emails, text messages, social media alerts and more on the lockscreen. It can be a handy way to help you see whether a notification is important or not without actually unlocking your phone. However, it also means that anyone that picks up your phone can see snippets of information that might be private. Samsung offers three options for lock screen notifications thanks to its TouchWiz UI overlay....

Update 17 November: Google announced in a blog post that it’s adding two new features to Allo in the iOS and Android update that’s rolling out right now. First is the ability to choose a background for your chats – nothing particularly amazing there. Second is Smart Smiley. This works a little like iMessage in iOS 10 where words can be changed to emoji. However, in Allo, both words and the overall message are used to serve up a selection of relevant emoji and stickers....

Very often we get asked how to use two screens with one PC, but for some people it’s desk space that’s an issue. Here’s how to use two computers with one screen. (Also see How to add a second screen to your PC or laptop.) A reader wrote in to Helproom to ask: “I would like to split one screen between two computers. For example, I would like to use the right side of the screen for one PC and the left side for another....

The feature combines the musical preference of the listener with popular songs enjoyed by other Spotify users, resulting in a unique mixtape full of new discoveries. Discover Weekly appeared to be an instant hit, reaching 1.7 billion streams in between July and December of 2015. According to Spotify, the number of users that enjoyed this feature has grown exponentially. In 2016, 40 million people who had streamed over 100 million songs enjoy the curated 30 tracks each week....

How to use two-factor authentication on PlayStation Network: Why should I use two-factor authentication? Sony is the latest in a string of companies to offer two-factor authentication for its users – companies including Apple have already introduced the technology, which makes it notoriously difficult for hackers to gain access to your account. The idea is that whenever you log in to your account on a service or website, the website will contact you via alternate means (SMS or dedicated app like Steam) and provide you with a code to enter on the site/service to verify that it is you logging in, and not somebody that has stolen your login details....

In fact, you can’t even sideload VPN apps as the consoles simply don’t support them. But before you click away disheartened, there are a handful of unofficial ways to use a VPN on the PS4 or PS5 to access other regions of Netflix, get early access to new games, improve laggy online connections and more. We outline the four best ways of using a VPN on PS4 and PS5 right here....

Just as you got used to the changes in Windows 8 from Windows 7, along came Windows 8.1 and confused things further. Here we point you in the direction of some useful tutorials that explain how to use Windows 8.1. A reader wrote into Helproom with the following question: “Not long ago, I moved from Windows XP to Windows 8 and, while I found it initially difficult to learn, I gradually worked out most of the basics that I needed and was quite happy....