[ 090 ]
traditional headphones that connect via a
phono plug to your computer. If this is the case,
they won’t show up in ‘Device Manager’.
Instead, you need to check the Taskbar
Notification area for a speaker-like icon, which
you should click or right-click to open the sound
manager. You should see a list of audio ports
appear — plug in your headphones and the
sound-manager tool should detect the presence
of the headphones, allowing you to test if they
work and verify the settings are correct. If you
have purchased USB headphones, you need to
visit the manufacturer’s web page to verify
they’re compatible with Windows 10 and
download any drivers.[ INTERNET ]
Can’t sync calendar
in Windows Live Mail
We’ve had sync problems with a Hotmail mail
account, so converted it to IMAP protocol for
use in Windows Live Mail, not realising the
calendar would no longer function. What’s the
best solution for a Windows 10 desktop,
Windows 7 laptop and Android tablets?
We need a calendar that syncs between all
of them. Thanks! [ TIM KAYE ]Cat Ellis replies: By the time we got in contact,
Tim had already switched to a Google calendar,
which synced seamlessly on his Android
devices. Now he was trying to keep it in sync
using Thunderbird and its built-in Lightning
calendar add-on. Results were mixed, and so we
steered him towards the free version of emClient
(www.emclient.com), which supports up to two
email and calendar accounts. Tim was pleased
at how easy it was to set up and sync, and has
now moved exclusively across.[ WINDOWS ]
Can’t get Windows 7
to update
My wife’s slow netbook has not updated for
almost a year, and the setup log has several
lines reading: ‘Error 41227 – Downloader
system error has occurred’. I’ve tried
everything to correct this — including
following some previous tips from Te c h Li f e,
but I can’t get it to work. Can you help please?
[ BILL SKIDMORE ]Matt Hanson replies: The key is getting
Windows 7 up to date — at some point over
the past year, a problem with slow andmalfunctioning updates was addressed.
The best way to do this is by downloading
the updated July 2016 update rollup for
Windows 7 SP1 from support.microsoft.com/
kb/3172605 — make sure you download the
correct package for your system type (x86 for
32-bit, x64 for 64-bit). Once downloaded,
click ‘Start > Run’, type “services.msc” and
click OK to open the Services management
console. Locate the Windows Update service,
right-click it and choose ‘Stop’. Now double-
click the downloaded package and wait for it
to run — there will be a lengthy delay, but be
patient and it should move on to install the
updates. Once complete, reboot your PC when
prompted and you should find Windows
Update is now working correctly again.[ IOS ]
Faithful colour on a
12.9-inch iPad Pro?
I have been using my iPad Pro for design work
using the Apple Pencil, and was very happy
with this setup until I saw the True Tone
display in action on a newer 9.7-inch model.
I’ve heard that I can achieve similar white
balance adjustment on my iPad Pro by turning
on Night Shift and tweaking that, but it doesn’t
look the same. Is there anything else I can try,
or will I just have to upgrade when Apple ships
an updated version of the larger iPad Pro?
[ STEVE JONES ]Howard Oakley replies: It’s unfortunate that
Apple didn’t have the hardware ready when
it launched the current version of the 12.9-inch
iPad Pro, and everyone expects that model’s
next revision will include a True Tone display.
Night Shift’s quite different from True Tone,
though. While a regular user might find
adjusting Night Shift’s settings makes things
look almost as good as True Tone, Night Shift
could readily lead you astray when colour is a
more critical issue. This is because Night Shift’s
colour adjustment is manually controlled,
rather than driven by ambient light sensors,
as True Tone is. So Night Shift is just as prone
to human error as performing colour
calibration of your display by eye alone.
Given quirks in human vision, with effects
such as colour constancy and those of colour
contrasts, ‘ by eye’ adjustments can easily be
misled. If faithful colour is important to your
work, you could perform colour calibration
using one of Datacolor’s Spyder3 or Spyder4
ranges of colorimeters and its Spyder4Gallery
app, but that app doesn’t work with newer
Spyder5 devices. Until you can get a more
suitable iPad, the best you can probably do
is to try to limit colour-sensitive work to fairly
consistent and neutral lighting conditions.HELP STATIONQ AND AemClient keeps cloud calendars
and email in sync.Use your PC’s sound manager tool
to check your headphones.