Jumping on a public Wi-Fi connection saves your monthly data but it can be dangerous. With the ZenVPN you can surf safely on these connections without the fear of unwanted access to your device. Pick up a lifetime subscription to this service foronly $45 – that's 95 percent off– in ourAndroidPITDeals Store.
If you want to use a public Wi-Fi connection, you should be aware of the potential dangers. While on a public connection, your device is more vulnerable to attacks by unwanted third parties. Your priceless personal information can be put at risk. Never fear, the ZenVPN will keep you safe.
Enjoy peace-of-mind with uninterrupted internet surfing and top-notch connectivity in a wide network allocation. When you travel, you'll be able to bypass those pesky geo-restrictions and watch your favorite movies, TV shows and other content. Watch Netflix or Hulu in any country.
Get a lifetime subscription to the ZenVPN foronly $45 – that's 95 percent off the retail price of $1,000. Head over and pick up this service soon, the offer expires in just a couple of days.
YES, IT'S THE BEST TIME OF THE YEAR TO BUY A SMARTPHONE
This is a question that never goes away: when is the best time to buy a smartphone? Obviously, if your device explodes or does not work, you will need a replacement quickly. Or, you may just want to buy different one because you no longer like the old one. Be happy, dear reader, because the upcoming weeks are the fabled best time to buy a smartphone.
Contrary to what you might have read around the internet, there is indeed an ideal time of the year to buy a smartphone. I think that the beginning of this winter season is the best time to get a new device. Do you know why?
There are many opportunities later this season
Black Friday / Cyber Monday
Those who are look out for good deals will already be familiar with these two events. Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving when most brands and stores dealing in technology offer large price reductions on some of their devices. In other words, it is an enormous sale that will thrill those who want to buy a device.
Cyber Monday is more or less the same thing as Black Friday, but it is three days later, on the following Monday. On Cyber Monday, instead of waiting in line outside a store, you can find great deals online.
You can be assured that during this long weekend, many sellers, like online giants Amazon, Best Buy, and many others, will make very attractive offers. Bear in mind that not all devices will be discounted. Apple, for example, generally does not offer special pricing during these sales because of high demand. The latest flagships are unlikely to be on sale, but you never know, so keep an eye out.
Christmas
While Christmas is the season of cheer, it is also the season of gift-giving. Retailers take advantage of the spike in demand and compete on price by offering massive deals leading up to the holiday.Again, it is quite difficult to know in advance what will be offered. One can definitely find promotions on models from previous years, or even sometimes recent models at a cheaper prices, as retailers hope they will fly off the shelves… Anything is possible.
Because no new flagships will be released before the MWC
Some people buy the flagships as soon as they are released, regardless of the price. Others wait for a better quality-to-price ratio to act. Only the Huawei Mate 9 and soon theOnePlus 3T will be commercialized in the near future, so, unless you want to buy one of these phones (which may benefit from an offer when released) you will have to wait for the MWC to see the manufacturers’ new high-end ranges. Let me use this opportunity to remind you that Samsung may not release its smartphone at the 2017 MWC but much later in the year.
You can certainly wait for the new flagship if you find it exciting. But, otherwise, if you want a good phone at a reasonable price then now is the best time.
Apart from some hardliners (hey, Apple!), the price of the devices falls with time. So, the more you wait, the less you'll pay. In two or three months, the price reduction isn't always extraordinary. But if you want to buy one of last year’s flagships (a Galaxy S6, for example) you may have noticed for a while now that the price been falling. The good news is that when Black Friday and the Christmas season roll around, it is likely to cost even less!
Which smartphones would be worth buying if they were up for sale?
It is difficult to answer that question, since the needs and wants of each person are different. We could tell you which phablets are currently the best, or which smartphones are the best based on different criteria, but often enough, a user is attached to a brand and simply buys the newest version of the same phone range. For example, a Galaxy S5or S6 user will quite easily opt for a Galaxy S7rather than an LG G5. Whatever it may be, you should be able to find what you are looking for in one of our tests.
Are you planning on buying a smartphone in the near future?
HUAWEI MATE 9 PORSCHE DESIGN: WHAT THE MATE 9 COULD HAVE BEEN
Huawei recently chose the Bavarian city of Munich to unveil its successor to the Mate 8’s. As rumors led us to believe, two new devices were introduced: the Mate 9 and the Porsche Design Mate
9. If the first results are anything to go by, in my opinion the Mate 9 is a sequel with very little originality. This isn’t the case with the Porsche Design Mate 9 - it’s the smartphone that the Mate 9 should have been. Here's why.
Huawei has grown to become one of the most successful smartphone manufacturers in the world. Those who disputed that have had to reevaluate their opinions after the brand's recent sound and light show for the European press. The strongest symbol of this new power is without a doubt their partnership with Porsche Design for the creation of the Porsche Design edition of the Mate
9. This version, that rumors had been calling the Mate 9 Pro, differs greatly from the Mate 9 in both form and substance.
The Porsche Design Mate 9 differs greatly from the Mate 9 in both form and content.
A more successful design and better definition
In the automotive world Porsche, in particular the popular 911, is known for being among the best manufacturers in the world. On paper, being associated with Porsche Design appears to be a good idea for Huawei. If anything we would have expected just a little more originality in the device, as there are many similarities to the Galaxy Note7.
The smartphone has a great design and gives the user a more premium experience than the standard Mate 9. The aluminum encased smartphone sports a beautiful jet black color, much like the latest iPhone 7. The only major drawback is the visibility of fingerprints on the device.
As well as offering a curved display on both sides (again, like the Note7), Huawei has also moved away from its habit of inserting fingerprint readers on the front of the smartphone via a Home button. Instead the sensor is now similar to that of the MediaPad M3 tablet and identical to that which you can find on an HTC or an iPhone 7. However, you have to press it more than you would think.
The Porsche Design Mate 9 offers a smaller screen of 5.5 inches with a QHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) definition. A surprising move for Huawei was their decision to opt for a Full-HD on the standard version even though its screen was larger (5.9 inches). The compact design is also makes it much easier to handle in comparison to the massive Mate 9.
Under the hood, the Porsche Design Mate 9 is also much more ambitious than the Mate 9. Even if this variant has the same Kirin 960 processor and the same Leica dual camera (a 12-mega pixel color sensor (RGB) coupled with a 20-mega pixel monochrome sensor), the Porsche Design Mate 9 uses 6GB of RAM. Finally, it has an internal memory of 256GB. In short, it’s excellent for a top-range smartphone in 2016.
Its compact design is much more ergonomic compared to the massive Mate 9.
The price and release date are its only downfall
The Porsche Design Mate 9 is a more compact and more highly developed version of the Mate 9. In addition to its premium and slim design, a brighter screen with better definition, it also offers better technical specifications with more RAM and a larger internal memory while maintaining all the advantages of the Mate 9: the double Leica camera, the Kirin 960 processor and Android 7.1 Nougat.
The only things that let down the Porsche Design Mate 9 are its price and release date. Unlike the Mate 9, which is due to be released on November 15, not only will we have to wait until next December to buy the Porsche Design Mate 9 it will be on sale for a rather bitter 1,395 euros - 200 euros more than the 256 GB iPhone 7 Plus. Finally, as far as distribution is concerned, we’ll have to hunt them out as the smartphone will only be available from Porsche Design stores.
ULTIMATE SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 AND S7 EDGE TIPS AND TRICKS
Samsung's S7 and S7 Edge are two great smartphones and they can do a whole lot more than you might expect. Here's how to do pretty much anything you could want to do with the S7 and S7 Edge. If we've missed any of your favorite S7 tips and tricks, let us know in the comments!
A large part of the S7 Edge's appeal is that beautiful double-curved 5.5-inch display that lets you make use of the extra real-estate with Edge apps and panels, which can display useful information about a whole range of things.
To switch Edge apps and panels on or off, or to change any of the settings, you should navigate to Settings > Edge screen. Once you're there, you can click either Edge panelsor Edge feeds to add or change content sources. By default, you can select to be able to access various information from your phone via Apps edge, People edge and Tasks edge.
For both Edge apps and panels (which are used to display set information from a source, like a news or weather update rather than quick access to a contact), you can download additional extensions from Samsung's Galaxy App - there are free and paid Edge apps and panels available.
1.2 Edge illumination and Quick Reply
Another handy Edge tip is that as well as showing you useful information, the Edge display on the S7 Edge model can also be used to alert you of incoming calls when your phone is placed face down, by lighting up the Edge display. If you don't want to answer it (or can't), you can reject the call and send a Quick Reply message instead by putting your finger on the heart rate scanner.
To change these settings, head to Settings > Edge screen and then select either Edge lighting or Quick Reply.
The Always On Display feature is one that you might want to switch on or off now and again, though it won't make a big difference to your battery life if you do. To change the setting, you need to navigate to Settings > Display > Always On Display.
As well as switching the setting on and off, you can select different layouts for the Always On Display, choosing between things like digital or analogue clock, whether you want to see a calendar and a few other options.
This one is simple once you know how, and super-useful, but remember that it doesn't work with all apps. To activate it, you just need to hold down the app switching button to the left of the home button - if the app you're using doesn't support the feature, you'll get a message telling you that.
A better way to approach it is hold down the app switch button while on the home screen, that way you'll get a list of apps that do support it at the top of the screen, which you can scroll through. Once you've chosen the top app, you just click another one for the bottom section.
A quick tip to quickly change any of your home screen settings, like widgets, backgrounds, layouts, etc. is to long-press on an empty section of the home screen until the options appear. Alternatively, you can navigate to Settings > Wallpaper or Settings > Themes instead.
To change the size of the grid on your desktop, select the Screen grid option and choose between a 4 x 4, 4 x 5 or 5 x 5 layout. If you choose 4 x 4, icons and widgets will appear larger on your home screen by default.
It's not every day that you'll need to take a full-length screenshot, but when the occasion arises you just need to hold down the power button and the home button (to take a regular screenshot) and then tap the Capture More button that appears as it shows you a preview of the screenshot. You can keep repeating the process of tapping Capture More until you have the whole screen.
If you'd rather have a smaller clock displayed on the side of your screen during the night, open Settings > Display > Night Clock and then set the position (right or left) and duration of the Night Clock. During your chosen hours, a more discreet clock will now appear on your screen.
Lock screen notifications can be really handy, but making sure you see the updates from only the apps you really need is crucial. Delving into these settings also lets you control whether you get lock screen notifications in full, part or not at all.
Navigate to Settings > Lock screen and security > Notifications on lock screen and adjust the settings as you need.
If you want to disable the news slide that appears to the left of the default home screen, you just need to long-press in a gap on any home screen then navigate to the Upday panel and toggle the selector switch. A handy tip if you never use the feature.
There are a few different tips and tricks you can use if you want to get a little more out of your camera too.
For example, you don't need to unlock your phone, find then select the camera app to take a quick snap, instead, just double tap the home button and the camera will launch. If your phone is locked before you do this, it'll just let you capture photos and review the one you just took, but won't give you access to the rest of the gallery until the phone has been unlocked.
While the camera is open, tap the down arrow to expand the on-screen options, then tap the little cog icon to open the. Camera settings. From there, you can select Shooting methods (rear) to switch on the voice capture option, which is activated by saying 'Smile', 'Cheese', 'Capture' or 'Shoot'. You can start a video by saying 'Record Video'
Most people will never venture out of the automatic camera settings, and that's fine, but if you want to get a little more hands-on control over your shots, then you'll need to activate Pro mode. To do this, tap theMode button and select Pro. This will let you adjust things like the white balance, ISO, contrast, shutter speed and a few other bits and pieces.
You can also activate other camera modes (selective focus, panorama, video collage, live broadcast, slow motion, virtual shot and hyperlapse options in the same way. There's even a dedicated food mode, if that's your sort of thing.
If you want to keep snap photos in a pure unadulterated RAW format, you'll need to switch on the Pro mode as described above first. Once you've done that, you can navigate to Camera settings via the on-screen gear icon and enable RAW.
Images that you take are saved in both RAW and JPEG format, and you'll need a separate viewer app to look at the RAW files. You also can't save burst shot images in RAW format.
By default, your lock screen provides the dialer and camera as shortcuts but you can change these to other apps if you want by visiting Settings > Lock screen and security > Info and app shortcuts > App shortcuts. You can also disable the left or right side shortcuts (or both) if you don't want them switched on.
While the S6 and S6 Edge didn't support external storage via microSD cards, this isn't a feature you'll find lacking on the S7 and S7 Edge, which means you can move your apps to a microSD card to free up space in your storage.
To do that, you need to navigate to Settings > Applications > Application manager and select an app from the list and then click theStorage option to be able to select theChange option. Not all third-party apps, and many native manufacturer apps, can't be moved to external storage.
Accidentally tapping the wrong button and being dragged out of your gaming sessions by other notification interruptions can be a thing of the past if you set up the Game Launcher mode. At it's most simple, it's a handy folder to keep all your games in but it delivers a lot more than that.
By enabling different settings, you can put Game Tools just a tap away, and make sure you don't suffer any more interruptions in the middle of a session. You can also choose to launch games in mute mode or cut back the graphics to save some power.
If you want to change which keyboard, browser, launcher or any other default app behaviour, you need to navigate to Settings > Applications > Default applications > Set as default.
Automatic app updates can eat through your data connection faster than you'd want, so you probably want to enable them to only happen while you're on WiFi, or perhaps you want to disable them entirely. Thankfully, it's a simple tip that doesn't require enabling and disabling updates individually.
Just open the Play Store app and navigate toSettings > Auto-update apps to adjust the settings. You can also control whether or not you see a notification when updates are available for apps you have installed here.
If you want to disable some of the bloatware and other default apps that come installed on your S7 and S7 Edge, there's a simple tip to help you do so. Navigate to Settings > Applications > Application manager and then select which app you want to disable (or enable) and tap the button.
For some tasks, you might need to enable developer options and if you need to do that then you should navigate to Settings > About Device > Software info and then tap the Build Number 7 times. You'll see a message telling you that you have access to developer settings once you're set. It's probably best you don't go playing around with too many settings in there without knowing what you're doing though.
If you're lucky, you might never need this option but if you do, you should know how to do it as it can save you some additional frustration. Sometimes, if your phone is hanging, the OS will initiate a reboot automatically, but if it hasn't done so after 30 seconds to a minute, you should do it manually instead.
To do that, you just need to hold the power button and volume down key until the phone reboots, as normal, hopefully.
If you find the size of the S7 or Edge a bit too much of a reach, there's a one-handed mode designed to make things a little easier on you. Just navigate to Settings > Advanced features > One-handed operation to reduce the size of the displayed on-screen area and enable one-handed input on the Keypad and Samsung Keyboard.
Once enabled, you press the home button three times to activate the option, and can disable it again by hitting the Return to full screen button.
If your battery life just isn't what it used to be, or you need to eke out an extra few hours, you should head to Settings > Battery > Power saving mode or Ultra power saving mode, which will do exactly as it says, but switch off everything except essential functions.
From the same screen, you can also control the App power saving settings that control which apps are automatically hibernated by the OS. You can enable or disable these on an individual basis.
Turning down the brightness control isn't the only way to stop the eye-wateringly bright colors for anyone that wants a more simplified, toned-down display. All you need to do is navigate to Settings > Display > Screen Mode and select the Basic option, which will give you a more muted palette.
If you want to add some information to the lock screen in case you lose your phone, which probably isn't a bad idea really, then you need to navigate to Settings > Lock screen and security > Info and app shortcuts > Owner Information.
If you'd rather set some other information instead of your personal details, you can do that instead.
This is another handy tip, particularly if you can still find the Samsung OTG connector included in the box as it can do some neat things, like allow you to use a wireless keyboard with your Samsung smartphone (you can use a wired one by plugging it into the micro USB port. You can also use it to read files directly from a flash drive (as you would a PC) or to boost your phone's battery by connecting another device via the OTG connector, just like charging your phone by plugging it into another PC.
If you don't have children and live in a house or apartment without a doorbell, this one won't be of much use, but if you have either - or both - of those things in your life, this is a useful option to know about. To get alerted to the sound of your doorbell or a baby crying, open Settings > Accessibility > Hearing > Sound detectors to enable or disable these option.
The S7 and S7 Edge's audio settings aren't awful as standard, but they can definitely be improved with a little manual tuning to your own tastes. Navigating to Settings > Sounds and vibration > Sound quality and effects will let you play around with these settings. It's worth noting that you won't be able to change some settings unless you have headphones connected.
There's also a handy guide that will make automatic adjustments for you if you go through the process of answering yes or no to a series of questions when listening for a beep. Hit Adapt Sound in the Sound quality and effects menu to get started. At the end of the process, you can hear the difference between the adapted sound and the original.
