myOurReview

TweakNews is a veteran Netherlands-based Usenet provider which combines a decent set of features with a very flexible set of payment plans and options. Signing up gets you a useful 2,500 days (or more than six years) of binary retention and guaranteed completion of 99.9%. Free SSL is included to secure your connection, and maybe improve speeds if your ISP is throttling Usenet traffic. Unlimited subscriptions start at €7.95 (£7, $9.25) for a single month, which gets you a maximum of 30 connections and speeds of up to 50Mbit. But you can also buy three or six months of service, or see the price fall to €5.83 (£5.15, $6.80) if you sign up for the annual plan. Upgrading to the Lightning plan doubles maximum speeds to 100Mbit and gives you 40 connections for €7.50 (£6.60, $8.70) a month over a year. The top-of-the-range Ultimate + VPN plan removes the speed cap and throws in a Highwinds-based VPN for a monthly €9.06 (£8, $10.50). Just in case you need even more flexibility, block sub...

Free password manager RoboForm has a lot of bases covered. As well as saving passwords for websites, it will also store the passwords you need for applications – all with AES 256-bit encryption. You can use RoboForm as a browser extension, a standalone program, or a combination of the two.  To help you get started, you can quickly import saved passwords from your web browser and well as from other password managers – great if you've decided to make the switch. You can also important data stored in CSV format. RoboForm includes a password generator too, and goes to some lengths to ensure that your current passwords are safe, checking for weak and duplicate password via the Security Center The free version of RoboForm is excellent, but for extra features such as cloud backup, you'll need to upgrade to RoboForm Everywhere . For individual users, this costs US$19.95/£15.95 (about AU$25) for one year, US$49.95/£39.95 (about AU$65) for three years, or $74.95/£59.95 (about AU$95)...

The main function of Dashlane is to offer secure storage for your passwords, and to automatically enter them into logon pages to save you having to type anything.  But Dashlane goes beyond this. Even the way passwords are stored is different to the vast majority of other similar programs. As well as the name and URL of a website for which you have saved login details, Dashlane will also display the site's logo to help you identify it at a glance. There's also a Security Dashboard, which analyses your passwords and not only suggests whether they are strong enough, but also highlights instances of potentially dangerous password reuse. If duplicate passwords are detected, Dashlane's password changing feature comes into its own. This is a great way to engage in the good practice of changing your security details on a regular basis.  As well as your passwords, Dashlane will also secure your payment details, the personal information you frequently provide to websites, and not...

The main function of Dashlane is to offer secure storage for your passwords, and to automatically enter them into logon pages to save you having to type anything.  But Dashlane goes beyond this. Even the way passwords are stored is different to the vast majority of other similar programs. As well as the name and URL of a website for which you have saved login details, Dashlane will also display the site's logo to help you identify it at a glance. There's also a Security Dashboard, which analyses your passwords and not only suggests whether they are strong enough, but also highlights instances of potentially dangerous password reuse. If duplicate passwords are detected, Dashlane's password changing feature comes into its own. This is a great way to engage in the good practice of changing your security details on a regular basis.  As well as your passwords, Dashlane will also secure your payment details, the personal information you frequently provide to websites, and not...

Established way back in 1999, Newshosting has grown into a popular Usenet provider which offers a strong set of features for a very reasonable price. The service claims 3,357 days retention over more than 100,000 uncensored newsgroups. That's around 9 years, way more than you'll get with competitors like Giganews , Easynews and Tweaknews , and comparable with the likes of Usenetserver. The company runs its own multi-gigabit server farms in the US and Europe to maximize performance, optimistically stating "this guarantees you the fastest Usenet access available from any Usenet server… period." Free 256-Bit SSL Encryption is on hand to secure your connections, and you can add a VPN to even the most basic plan for $4.99 (£4) a month. Excellent Windows, Mac and Linux apps make it easy for beginners to search Usenet, in order to find and download whatever they need. It's branded as the Newshosting Browser, but it looks to us like a rebadged version of Usenet Wire. ...

When the AI-equipped smart speaker was introduced to the wider world by Amazon in 2015, it was a novel idea. To that point, not only was the original Amazon Echo a Bluetooth speaker that could play nearly any song you could think of, but it was a pretty handy smart home hub, too.  Now fast-forward to 2017, a scant three years later, and the market is nearly saturated with these devices. Not only do you have Google and Amazon producing a combined 10 models of smart speakers just on their own, but they’ve even begun to license the technology out to third-party manufacturers like Sonos, GE and others who are making their own smart assistant-equipped sound canisters or packing the AI into unfitting form factors.  Now, just when you think the market can’t have one more speaker, here comes the $199 Harman Kardon Invoke, a US-only smart speaker so close in form and function to the Amazon Echo that they could be mistaken for one another by anyone unfamiliar with the slew of devices...

Founded in 2001, Eweka is a specialist internet service provider which offers a straightforward Usenet service from its Amsterdam headquarters. This isn't yet another reseller. Eweka runs its own data centre in Amsterdam (there are no US servers yet), and has POP locations in Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt and more. It has its own trans-Atlantic backbone, manages its own routings, and is even a Local Internet Registry at RIPE with its own AS number (a unique identifier representing a network on the internet). The service specifications are reasonable. Eweka supports 125,000 newsgroups, which is better than many; but completion is "at least 99.5%", while other services often guarantee 99.9%. Retention seems impressive at 3,356 days, or more than 9 years. Confusingly, the specifications page says it is "up to 3,094 days". The 3,356 days figure seems correct as it's quoted in more places, but customers shouldn't be left to guess over such an important s...