Steve Litchfield

It can't only be me who has scam phone calls come in. The most recent (and most common) is an Indian call centre voice saying that they're from my mobile phone operator, quoting (or guessing correctly) Three, in this case. They open up with 'We can offer you a 45% discount on your current mobile monthly bill'. Which, in itself, should raise alarm bells - what company ever contacts you to get you to pay them less money?? The scam itself is intended to get you to hand over all your details, of course, including payment, for the 'new contract' - and presumably your account then gets debited for a whole lot. But the point of this blog post is to point out that you should always interrupt their spiel and ask them to prove their identity. After all, it was them that called you, so the onus is on them - just as it would be if you called a company and wanted to change something in your own contract with them - they'd run you through security questions before doing ...

The Surface Go, launched in 2018, is now seven years old. Never high end at the time (though do make sure you seek out the 8GB RAM version with the proper SSD), it is, nonetheless, a fabulous form factor.  A laptop which is also a tablet and, in form, passing for an iPad easily. Many is the time the family has headed off on a holiday and I've been 'banned from bringing a work laptop', yet I got away with it because I brought the Surface Go - everyone assumed it was an iPad that I'd brought along for a few games and some Netflix. Add in decent stereo speakers, microSD expansion, hot swappable Alcantara keyboards, Surface Pen compatibility, two better-than-expected cameras, and super build quality, and you can see the attraction. See also my original coverage of Surface Go over at (ye olde) AAWP ... (NB: There was a Surface Go 2, 3, and 4, though I've only ever played with the original, picking up two of them second hand at super-cheap bundle prices over the years. St...