Customise the BBC website to read theh news that interests you

I recently noticed a banner at the top of the BBC Homepage ( www. bbc.co.uk) informing me it would be changing soon and suggesting I give it a go before it launches officially. You first need to create a BBC account or log into your existing account (by clicking ‘Sign in’ at the top left). Next, click the blue ‘Take Me There’ at the top right, then click ‘Customise your Homepage’ at the top left.

Click the Allow button when asked for your location because this lets you receive local weather and news updates. You’ll now see seven sections - Local, News, Sport, Entertainment, Culture, Living and ‘Science and Technology’. Each has a list of news topics – for example, ‘UK news’, ‘World news’ and ‘Education news’ in the News section (see screenshot). Some of these are already ticked, while others have a ‘+’ symbol beside them.

Click the ‘+’ symbol beside the topics that interest you within each section (or untick any pre-ticked items). When you’ve finished, click ‘Back to Homepage’ at the top right. You’ll see the weather forecast for in your area at the top right, and each news section will now reflect the choices you made.

Google’s Snapseed is one of the most highly rated photo-editing apps for both Android ( www.snipca.com/17692) and IOS ( www.snipca. com/17693). Its interface was recently revamped, making it much easier to use. As well as the usual features (cropping, rotating and controlling brightness and contrast levels), the app lets you add professionallevel effects, including Lens Blur. This lets you select a particular area of your photo as your focus, while blurring the rest.

To use Lens Blur, open the app, tap Open Photo, navigate to the one you want, then tap to open it. Now tap the small pen icon at the bottom right, swipe up to show the app’s filters and tap Lens Blur. You’ll see two concentric circles (see screenshot above). If you want to change the focal point shape from a circle to a rectangle, tap the blue circle icon at the bottom left. Tap and drag the blue dot in the middle if you want to change the area of focus.

You can change the level of blur intensity in the rest of the photo by tapping anywhere outside the second