Review TechRadar: Phone and communications news 05-21-2014

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LG G3 advert spills everything about the Quad HD phone May 21st 2014, 15:10, by Hugh Langley Just about every detail of the LG G3 has just been revealed, after some photos of LG's advertising material were leaked online. Starting with the specs and moving on to focus on the phone's biggest features, the images don't tell us a lot that we already don't know from other leaks. But that 5.5-inch Quad HD display, 3GB of RAM and Snapdragon 801 processor are all confirmed here, and we reckon this leak looks pretty legitimate. Vive la resolution LG's clearly keen to show off just how gorgeous that screen is going to look, putting its G3 against what looks like a Samsung Galaxy S5 in one of the slides. Although we can only base it on the grainy pictures, it looks like that black oval sensor on the rear is there to either improve colour accuracy, or to make focusing a lot faster as we'd already heard. It also looks like the rear buttons will probably control the front-facing camera, while some mysterious cartoon hands hint at some gesture-based controls. Or at least that's our guess. But the less said about LG cashing in on the "selfie" here, the better. So what else is there to tell you about the LG G3? In Depth: Unknown but unstoppable: the next-gen smartphone brands you can't ignore May 21st 2014, 14:00, by James Rogerson Standing out in the fiercely competitive smartphone market is becoming ever more difficult. A specs bump just doesn't cut it anymore when phones that are two years old are still performing admirably and there's only so much bigger that the screens can get before we're forced to stop pretending we're not making calls on tablets. The fact is it's getting boring too. Phones are becoming the same and we doubt we're alone in saying that we're itching for some innovation. But there's no need to wait because there are already some truly innovative and exciting handsets out there, they're just not the big names. They might one day be though. The smartphone market of the future is going to be a radically different place, where innovation and value trump power and the current big hitters are going to need to adapt or die. There's already evidence of this change. With the launch of the OnePlus One we're seeing high end hardware delivered at a fraction of the price we're used to, while brands like Yota Devices and Jolla are thinking outside the box to deliver unique experiences. But even if the spec wars continue, Apple and Samsung will need to watch their backs, as phones like the Xiaomi Redmi Note and the Meizu MX3 are outdoing them with octo-core processors and 128GB of built in storage respectively, while current big name handsets top out at quad-core processors and 64GB of storage. In short the old guard are in trouble and if you want to be on the front lines of the revolution the following are the companies you should be looking to. OnePlus The OnePlus One is arguably the current poster child for alternative flagships. It had very little build up and is made by a new company which isn't well known, or not yet anyway. In that sense the odds are definitely stacked against it, but the OnePlus One has a few tricks up its sleeve. Firstly it's tremendously powerful, with a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor and 3GB of RAM theoretically giving it more muscle than even the Samsung Galaxy S5. It's not just power that it has on its side either. The OnePlus One also runs CyanogenMod 11S, which is a more tweakable and customisable version of Android and something which no other handset currently runs. The real reason that Samsung and Apple should fear the OnePlus One though is its price, which at just £229 (US$299, around AU$320) for the 16GB model makes it less than half the price of their flagships. It suddenly makes it very hard to justify spending £500+ on a phone and if OnePlus can get the word out then it should have a very bright future indeed. Yota Devices So far Yota Devices has only made one phone, the appropriately named YotaPhone, but that one phone is among the most innovative handsets on the market. While every other phone is content with one screen, the YotaPhone has two. There's a standard LCD screen on the front and an e-ink display on the back. The obvious use for that is as a combined phone and e-reader, but the YotaPhone goes beyond that, by also using the e-ink screen for notifications and reminders. It can also save whatever you were last viewing to it if your battery dies, so you'll still be able to access tickets and maps. Vlad Martynov, CEO of Yota Devices explained to us what makes YotaPhone different: "YotaPhone is the first game changer in smartphones in a very long time. Since the Apple iPhone debut in 2007, there has been very little innovation in the smartphone industry. "The form factor basically hasn't changed. Instead, the industry has been in a specs race, focusing on bigger screens, better cameras and faster CPUs. When Yota Devices first introduced the YotaPhone concept, no one had heard of company nor were they embracing the concept of a dual screen, always-on smartphone. Today, YotaPhone is the benchmark by which all similar products are compared. YotaPhone has also demonstrated that the future of smartphones and mobile devices belongs to always-on displays, which allow users to stay connected without turning off the real world and disrupting the people around you. Information hidden behind a black screen is of limited use to us. It creates bad habits - like phubbing, the act of snubbing the people around you for your smartphone. And, technology already exists - namely battery saving electronic paper display - that allows you access to information without sapping your phone's battery. The company has recently announced the next generation of the handset too, complete with a more stylish design and high end specs, so that it's better able to compete with conventional smartphones. The YotaPhone 2 will be launching towards the end of the year. Jolla Jolla isn't just rethinking hardware, it's also making big changes to the software we use on it. The company's Sailfish OS is the result of that. It's open source, has a button free and gesture based interface and supports Android apps. In the words of Juhani Lassila, Head of Communications at Jolla: "With Jolla and Sailfish OS it's all about the user experience." In practice that seems to mean a focus on multitasking and the aforementioned gesture based UI. The one and only Sailfish phone currently available, the Jolla, is a bit different too, with swappable smart covers which change not just the look of the hardware but can also change the software theme, with new colours, wallpapers and sound effects. It's available to order now from Jolla's site for €399 (about £327, US$555, AU$593). Launching a whole new OS is a brave move and convincing users to ditch the tried and true experiences of Android and iOS could be a tough job. But on the other hand it injects a burst of fresh energy into an environment which hasn't changed much in the last few years. Plus in supporting Android apps it makes the transition for users as painless as possible. Though unsurprisingly there's no access to Google Play, so you'll have to rely on third party app stores. Jolla believes that usability is key, as Lassila told us that "the heart of Jolla and Sailfish OS is in the user experience, not in the specs. We aim to provide a better, faster, effortless UX. The specs will never be our most important competing factor." It's an ideology that makes sense. As with most of the world so focused on specs the best way to stand out is surely to take a different approach. Which in this case primarily means an intuitive and fully gesture based interface. Project Ara Google itself deserves a mention here as while it's a massive corporation which is already a big part of the smartphone landscape, it's also looking at ways to fundamentally change that environment. With Project Ara, Google is exploring modular smartphones, where a base handset could cost as little as $50 (about £29, AU$53) and individual components, such as the camera or processor, could be swapped out and upgraded as needed. So rather than buying a whole new phone every one to two years you could stick with the same one indefinitely and just change the individual parts. Not only could that work out cheaper for users but it empowers them to create exactly the phone they want. And while its modular nature means that it will inevitably be bigger and blockier than standard smartphones, the size and weight penalty is now at under 25%, so it needn't look like a brick. If it takes off it could be the biggest disruption yet to the current way of doing things, with new handsets and phone contract renewals becoming rarities. Project Ara isn't commercially available yet, but the first handset is set to launch in January 2015 for just $50. Oppo Oppo might not be a big name in the west, but in China it's a major player, albeit a relatively recent one, and it's likely to start making a dent in the US and Europe over the coming years too. There's no one thing that Oppo is doing to stand out, but it's a company which isn't afraid to innovate. With the Oppo Find 7 it delivered the first 2K display on a smartphone, while the Oppo N1 has the option to run CyanogenMod and has a swivelling camera, so you can leverage its 13 megapixel lens for selfies and video calls. Only the latter of those two phones is currently available in the UK though, carrying a price tag of roughly £390 (about US$661, AU$750). Oppo might never be as big over here as Samsung or Apple but with a few more ideas like that it could certainly make a name for itself. GeeksPhone GeeksPhone is perhaps the least well known of all these, but that doesn't make it any less exciting or potentially disruptive. It's a recent company focussed on building phones for open source operating systems and as part of that it's one of the handful of manufacturers currently supporting Firefox OS. Its Revolution handset is one of the most powerful Firefox phones around so far in fact, though with a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and a 4.7-inch qHD display it's still distinctly mid-range. But it's got more than specs and a fledgling OS going for it, as it can also dual-boot Android, so users have a choice of two operating systems at any given time. The Revolution can be ordered now for €164.46 (about £135, US$229, AU$244) excluding taxes. GeeksPhone is also involved in the making of Blackphone, a handset with top of the line security features. Ultimately GeeksPhone is unlikely to rise to the top of the ranks, but it's providing some compelling if niche alternatives for people who want something a bit different. In fairness to Samsung, it sometimes thinks outside the box too. HTC One M8 Prime and its bulging camera get revolving render May 21st 2014, 11:08, by Kate Solomon The HTC One M8 Prime leaks are coming thick and fast, and today we've been treated to a 360 degree revolving render. It comes from everybody's favourite phone leakster, @evleaks, and doesn't give much away beyond the fact that the camera module now has an orange ring around it and protrudes from the back of the phone. That suggests that new camera hardware is afoot, which means we may see an improved snapper over the original One M8's dual 4MP camera which we already think is pretty impressive. Word is that the premium M8 will come with a 5.5-inch screen (as opposed to the M8's 5-inch display), a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor, QHD display and a 3GB of RAM. That's not to say we're convinced that the HTC One M8 Prime actually exists: mobile editor Gareth Beavis thinks a bigger, higher-res display would just pour water all over HTC's work to improve battery life. It may be better to put your money on the Samsung Galaxy S5 Prime instead New video leak suggests the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active does exist after all May 21st 2014, 08:49, by Hugh Langley We've been skeptical about the prospect of a Samsung Galaxy S5 Active – the S5 flagship is already waterproof and dustproof – but a couple of new videos have surfaced showing what appears to be that very phone. The footage was captured by TK Tech News, which showed off the alleged Galaxy S5 Prime just days ago. The rugged phone in the video shares some design similarities with the Galaxy S4 Active from last year, most notably the extra padding and rear seal to protect the handset from water. Activate However the Samsung isn't stripping back the specs this time: the leak shows that the same 16MP camera is still onboard, along with the heart rate monitor. TK reckons the screen is sharper than 1080p but it seems unlikely that Samsung would pack its Active with a better display than the original S5. It's also tough to tell how close to the final production model this is, but it certainly doesn't look too far from completion. YouTube : www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0dz49fwJO0 TechRadar's big Samsung Galaxy S5 review Analysis: Hello Moto: The true story behind Lenovo's big buy May 21st 2014, 08:25, by Marc Chacksfield Think ThinkPad when it comes to Lenovo and The news that Lenovo had snapped up Motorola Mobility for $2.1 billion earlier in the year was met with a number of questions. The first: why is Google selling this part of Motorola for a fraction of what it had spent on the whole company, given it bought it for $12.5 billion? Then there was the confusion over what was actually bought - which patents went to Lenovo and what did Google retain? TechRadar went to Lenovo's headquarters in Beijing to learn a little more about this extraordinary deal and found out that it began with one inquisitive phone call soon after Google had announced it had brought Motorola under its wing. "We first approached Motorola when Google initially announced the acquisition," said Liu Jun, executive vice president of mobile for Lenovo. "We knew that Google was the owner of Android and felt that it may not want the hardware side of the business." Lenovo quite rightly assumed that Google had bought Motorola purely for its patents, so decided to show its interest in the hardware side just in case a sell-off was on the cards. "To us, it was clear that Google wanted to own the IPs," said Jun, "so we thought we had an opportunity to own the hardware side." This was when the initial phone call was made, as Jun explained: "We approached Google - Eric Schmidt and Andy Rubin - and there was a lot of discussion but then Google eventually decided to try to do hardware by itself." Back to the start Google then spent over a year figuring out a way to make the hardware manufacturing and selling side of Motorola work for them. But in the end it wasn't to be, so Google went back to the one company that contacted them at the time of its Moto takeover. "A year-and-a-half later Google reconsidered its strategy and at the end of 2013 we got a call from Google, from Eric Schmidt. We were asked if we still had the interest in the company and we did." Jun explained that Lenovo was so keen to get Motorola, the takeover - in big business terms - was a quick one. "We always thought Motorola was a good buy so we said yes to Schmidt and it took just three to four months to sign the contract." Although the acquisition has yet to go through - Lenovo is hoping that in the next three months it will be official - there has already been some thought as to how Motorola will operate within Lenovo. This did mean that all conversations we had were punctuated with 'we can't confirm until the deal has been done' but Lenovo has revealed that it is hoping to expand the research and development side of Motorola. This is an interesting move as it is one place Google cut straight away when it bought the company. "After Google acquired Motorola they closed a lot of R&D departments and now they just have places in Chicago and Cincinnati," explained Jun. "We don't think this is right. After we take over, this will change as for us the research and development is one of the most valuable assets. We will maintain the current R&D team, expand these teams and set up new sites elsewhere in the company." Brand identity As for which countries will get the Motorola brand and which ones will have Lenovo, don't expect massive changes here. Lenovo is looking to keep using the strongest brand in each territory. Aymer de Lencquesaing, senior vice president of Lenovo, told us: "When we buy Motorola what we are getting is a brand with a lot of resonance in phones. Lenovo is a strong brand but one that isn't yet associated with smartphones worldwide, Motorola definitely is. "In some markets we will use one brand or the other and in other markets both. All permutations are possible." To get more of an idea as to how this works, think Thinkpad. When Lenovo bought IBM's personal computer division in 2005 it retained the ThinkPad name and continued to use it where it had resonance. "IBM has legacy in China so we have both the Lenovo and the ThinkPad business," explained Chen Xudong, SVP and president of Lenovo China. "We have a good market share in both brands so we have positioned these product lines and kept this legacy. We will have a similar strategy to this with Motorola." Brand is all very well but what Lenovo got was a lot of "competitive IP". The deal means it will have 2,000 out of the 12,000 patent haul Google bought with Motorola. These will be added to the 6,500 patents Lenovo already owns. It will also get lifelong support from Google on any patents left behind so it won't have any legal barriers when innovating in the future. And then there is the fact that Lenovo Motorola is also Lenovo's golden ticket into countries it hasn't managed to quite crack yet - the mature markets of America and western Europe. This is something that Xudong believes will make Lenovo a true force in the mobile space. "With Motorola on board, we are very confident that we now have the strength to take on Apple and Samsung." What Lenovo buying Motorola means for your next smartphone Analysis: What to expect from Telstra's national Wi-Fi network? May 21st 2014, 05:05, by Farrha Khan and Rob Edwards What to expect from Telstra's Wi-Fi network Telstra yesterday announced a public national Wi-Fi network that will likely change the way we plug in to the web while out and about in Australia. The network will run on new infrastructure to be built by the telco, but will rely on the strength of a nation that shares bandwidth on their home networks through new modems. While the national Wi-Fi network will be available to anyone, customers on Telstra's home broadband line will be able to access the network for free (as part of their data allowance), but mobile customers – including Telstra customers at this stage – will be charged a fee. A network shake-up and a remodelling of how we access the internet on the go in the future, TechRadar editors Rob Edwards and Farrha Khan discuss the pros and cons of a national Wi-Fi network - and what it means for us all. Rob Edwards: First of all, let me say that I'm tentatively in favour of this. If, as promised, Telstra's bandwidth-sharing new modems don't have a negative impact on your home internet speeds then it seems like a good idea to me. I like the idea of Telstra setting up an additional 8,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, particularly in rural areas, and having access to 12 million international hotspots will be welcomed by anyone who's copped heavy roaming charges in the past. It will also be interesting to see what kind of an impact is has on mobile internet, as you'd imagine far more people will be hooked up to Wi-Fi more of the time, decreasing the load. Farrha Khan: Telstra seems certain that it won't affect your home internet speeds at all, with tech in place to only share bandwidth if it is not being used. Despite this, I imagine that if your internet suddenly drop outs or drops in speed while you're trying to stream Game of Thrones (legally of course!), a lot of people will blame the Wi-Fi network. To me, Telstra has an uphill battle in educating users that, first, sharing modem bandwidth for the national Wi-Fi network is only an opt-in option, and second, the security is apparently there to protect your own network access and data. On the other side of things, it now also makes sense why Telstra hasn't budged much in terms of pricing for international data roaming on its mobile plans despite Vodafone's aggressive Roam Like Home campaign. It'll certainly be handier as the tech expands to more countries, but it doesn't seem like much of a draw card just yet. RE: Yes, I think there will be considerable resistance to the idea through sheer ignorance, so it's up to Telstra to make sure it gets the messaging right. We Aussies are a paranoid and suspicious lot these days, and "sharing" our modems with complete strangers won't be an easy sell. As for the international roaming, it seems like Telstra might be getting in on the ground floor. It's a perfectly good idea, but there's a long way to go before we can describe it as anything close to worldwide. Since you mentioned Vodafone, it will be interesting to see what impact this has on other telcos. If the Wi-Fi network takes off in the way Telstra hopes it will it could prove an effective way of luring customers over to Telstra. I guess it depends how widespread the new Gateway Max modems are by the time the program launches next year and exactly how much the "small daily fee" for non-Telstra customers winds up being. It's ambitious and I think there's justification for the other telcos to be concerned. FK: This whole idea really could crumble if people aren't on board with sharing their modem, but as paranoid as everyone is, I think people in Australia, among other reasons, are frustrated enough with limited data inclusions in mobile plans. Ironically, Telstra may end up driving some mobile customers away. Likely, they already have a large data plan on the home line, so why pay so heavily for data on their mobile as well? Telstra has some of the lowest data inclusions on its mobile plans. And if data access is more important than traditional call reception to a customer (and let's face it, voice calls are moving to VOIP anyway), you could get onto a rather cheap Vodafone or Optus plan and jump on to Telstra's Wi-Fi network for free data. It wouldn't matter if you're on a Telstra mobile plan or not, because although Telstra has indicated that mobile plans will also have special access to the Wi-Fi network as well, it will likely still cost a fee to jump on at the launch of the network while it waits to see how people use the network. RE: Surely charging a launch fee to its own customers will see Telstra shooting itself in the foot? Telstra needs to maximise the number of people who join the program if it's to have any value. Charging a fee will discourage participation, making the network weaker. I can see why Telstra might be concerned about cannibalising the money coming in via its mobile plans, but it seems to me that the idea behind the program is to encourage customers to consume more data as a whole, whether it's via a mobile data plan or home broadband allowance. The idea is for customers to watch a video or download an app when in the past they might have just read a blog, checked social media or some other data-light activity. If we're all consuming more data and a telco is unable to monetise that somehow then the telco is doing a lousy job.   Anything that maximises ease of internet access has to be a good thing. Especially now that the national broadband network (NBN) is in such a state. FK: Ah, the NBN. It looks like Telstra's Wi-Fi network will hit its stride while our governments continue to argue the best access tech for fibre. But what you're saying is true. Telstra definitely wants us consuming more data. And this brings up an ugly possibility: with lower data inclusions something of a norm for Telstra mobile customers, are we heading towards a future that has higher charges for mobile data, almost forcing people to take up home broadband? On the flip side, as I mentioned earlier, this could also have other telcos trying to make their mobile data plans and networks more attractive (and possibly cheaper) to users. Here are two possible futures I see: Other telcos struggling with the sheer dominance of Telstra, or driving them to create better and more attractive mobile data alternatives – maybe even teaming up with other suppliers. Whatever the case, having more ways to connect to the internet can only be a good thing, as long as it drives competition. RE: Whatever Telstra does, it needs to tread carefully. At the same time, I think Telstra knows Australians aren't going to accept skyrocketing mobile data charges that are a transparent attempt to get them on the Wi-Fi network. If that were to happen other telcos would have a field day poaching Telstra's customers, and Telstra will never let that happen. Ultimately I think this Wi-Fi network is a promising and exciting development that will give us more options in the way that we consume content and data. It will be particularly welcome in rural areas and I'm certainly looking forward to the luxury of being less wary of my data usage. FK: Aussies would definitely be up in arms over shrinking data allowances, but it's something for everyone to keep an eye on over the years, even if it is just a 500MB reduction every year or so - just as we saw with Telstra's latest plan overhaul this year. With new forms of LTE being developed right now and the 700MHz spectrum set to enter the 4G networks of Telstra and Optus next year, the inclusion of a national Wi-Fi network is healthy for a nation such as Australia in providing greater access opportunities across the country. Of course, LTE/4G will continue to exist and develop to become faster and more robust, but Wi-Fi will be an excellent option for those times where 4G just isn't good enough. It'll be interesting to revisit this conversation once daily access fees are announced for non-home broadband Telstra customers, as that will dictate just how much of an option the Wi-Fi network will really be for the everyday user. What do you think? Has Telstra landed a killer blow to rival telcos with a national Wi-Fi network? Or is it just an excuse to limit mobile data usage? Tell us in the comments below! 'Gear Blink' trademark more evidence of Samsung smart glasses ambitions May 20th 2014, 19:51, by JR Bookwalter Even as the Korean manufacturer licks patent wounds suffered in repeated courtroom defeats against Apple, Samsung appears willing and able to copy further technology, this time from its closest ally. The Guardian reported Tuesday that Samsung has filed a trademark application in Korea for something called "Samsung Gear Blink," which appears to be little more than the company's own take on Google Glass. Taking a break from its existing wrist-based Gear wearable line, Samsung's next big thing looks an awful lot like augmented reality glasses similar to those being pioneered by none other than Android maker Google. Samsung's trademark ambitions follow on the heels of earlier patent filings for enabling a virtual keyboard to be projected onto the hands of the person wearing it, and dueling designs as to how such technology might actually be mounted onto eyeglasses. Don't blink Gear Blink certainly wouldn't be Samsung's first foray into vision-powered tech, given the Korean consumer electronics giant already includes optic recognition features in the company's popular smartphone line. With that existing functionality, Galaxy S5 owners can scroll through on-screen text simply by moving their eyes up or down, while the handset keeps the display active as long as the user is looking directly at the screen. For now, the trademark filing has been limited to Samsung's home turf with the Korean Intellectual Property Rights Information Service, although the application number 4020140033123 doesn't yet show up in a search of that website. Earlier this month, Google Glass went on general sale to the public in the US, although Samsung's own take on heads-up based wearables isn't expected to debut until at least September of this year. Check out our review of Samsung's latest Gear Fit wearable! Buying Guide: Best iPhone camera and photo editing apps May 20th 2014, 17:02, by Marc Flores The best camera is the one you have with you, that's what Chase Jarvis said. For many of us, the best camera is the iPhone, since that's what a number of us have in our pockets. That means the best iPhone camera apps are the ones that are always on our iPhone, right? Even the most casual iPhone photographers, or iPhoneographers, are taking mobile photography a little more seriously. As smartphone cameras get better, and photo editing apps improve, taking iPhone photos becomes more fun. So you've started exploring different light, angles and unusual photo compositions, and now you're diving into editing them to give them just a little more spark. With the thousands of camera and photo editing apps out there, which ones should you use? We've always taken our iPhoneography very seriously here at TechRadar, and over the years we've come to love and hate some photo apps. We're going to share with you the best camera apps for iPhone that we've always relied on, and the new ones that have caught our eye. Pro Camera or Pro Camera 7 With the original iPhone and iPhone 3G, we were forced to find really good light and solid composition before snapping a photo. Image quality wasn't the best, but more importantly, we couldn't control exposure. That all changed when the iPhone 3GS was released. With tap-to-focus capabilities, we also had spot metering. That means the camera would meter or light the photo based on where you were touching it on the display. That changed everything in smartphone photography as Android, and eventually Windows Phone, copied the general idea. With added control over the camera, app developers like Pro Camera took it a step further. The one huge advantage that "real" cameras had over smartphones was the ability to finely control exposure and focus. With apps like Pro Camera, and the newer Pro Camera 7, you can now control your focus and exposure. Having the ability to adjust these controls is so critical to photography, and that's why we're recommending this app. You can set focus, slide the exposure icon around until you have the right exposure, then snap away. Pro Camera and Pro Camera 7 also have some lightweight photo editing features and a number of other goodies, like choosing aspect ratios and seeing live exposure settings. If you want to take your iPhoneography a little more seriously, ditch the native camera app in favor of ones that give you more control, like Pro Camera. Snapseed Unless you have the perfect eye for light, color and composition, 99% of the time your photos will look a little flat. Even with the right moment in the right situation, the iPhone's amazing camera can only offer so much in terms of color and light. Snapseed will help give your flat photos a little more punch and bite, or it can mellow out a scene and give you some interesting tones and textures. Like other photo editing apps, Snapseed allows you to control basic things like brightness, contrast, saturation and white balance. But it also gives you features like fine-tuned exposure and color control, selective area control, frames, textures, filters, colors and more. Why do we recommend Snapseed over other photo editing apps that do the same? It does the job quickly and it does it well, and it never crashes on us. For basic, quick and dirty editing and toning, you probably can't do much better than Snapseed. PicTapGo I love PicTapGo. It's incredibly easy to use, and perhaps the best part of it is that I can post to Instagram without cropping. That means if a photo is in a 4:3 or 3:2 ratio, it stays that way. Sure, other apps do the same, but they tend to kill your photo's resolution for some reason, and PicTapGo doesn't do that. The way it works is all in the name: you select your photo or pic, tap on the adjustments and filters you want to use - each one has a slider that allows you to adjust intensity - and you go and post to your social networks, or save it in your iPhone's Photos app. These days, I find myself using PicTapGo more than any other photo editing app, especially if I'm working with a non-iPhone photo and I want to retain its aspect ratio for posting on Instagram. Adjusting exposure, white balance, contrast and certain filters is incredibly easy. If I had to use just one photo app on the iPhone every single day, it would be PicTapGo. Best of all, it's just $1.99 in the iTunes App Store and totally worth it. VSCO Cam For better or worse, the retro look is still in. And for that look, we can't think of a better app than VSCO Cam. VSCO Cam offers a number of filters and effects that give your photos a classic, vintage film look, but with expanded control settings. While other apps will slap a filter onto your photo and call it a day, VSCO Cam lets you take things a bit further by fine tuning exposure, contrast, saturation, white balance, hue, vignette and even simulated film grain. If the included filters and features aren't enough, VSCO Cam sells a huge array of additional filter packs and effects. We do feel like the differences between some filters are negligible, or not great enough to warrant purchasing, but you can preview them yourself and decide whether you want to spend a few bucks on it. Camera+ Not to be confused with Camera Plus, Camera+ is another excellent camera replacement app that gives you a lot of shooting control and photo editing options. Like Pro Camera and Pro Camera 7, Camera+ allows you to control focus and exposure while you're shooting. However, by default, all the photos you take are stored in the Camera+ lightbox. Your photos will show up like a 35mm film strip, so it's like you're looking at a contact sheet or strips of film laid on top of a lightbox. From there, you can delete photos or open them up for toning and color correction. There are a number of scene settings like Sunset, Night, Food and Clarity, which is a fake HDR effect that can be a little heavy-handed at times. You'll also get a number of color effects and filters, along with varying degrees of blur effects for simulated shallow depth of field and tilt-shift. And if you want more goodies, there are some in-app purchases for more filters and effects. Camera+ has a big advantage in that it allows you to control your focus and exposure, but we're recommending it along with Pro Camera and Pro Camera 7 because it gives you quick and dirty access to fast photo editing. We also like its Clarity feature when it doesn't overdo it. Instagram What good is a photo if you can't share it these days, right? Instagram is kind of a no-brainer, but mostly just for its sharing capabilities. While its filters can be really nice, and its effects halfway decent, Instagram's real power is in its speed and ability to share photos and short videos. We really prefer to tone and edit our photos outside of the app, like in VSCO Cam or Snapseed, then export it into Instagram for sharing. Having the filters are nice, and we sometimes find ourselves using them just to give our photos some added dimension. But for the most part, we like the control that other apps give us and we love Instagram's speed and sharing options. It's also nice to see all the photos your friends are taking in one place. Other apps have tried to mimic Instagram, like Streamzoo, but Instagram has the best interface and the largest user base, so in a sense you're kinda stuck with it. Photoshop Touch Despite being somewhat impractical, we're going to recommend Photoshop Touch. We took our time deliberating over this one, but decided to go ahead and add it to our list. Why the tough decision? Well, it's a powerful tool, and it gives you so much creative control and the ability to work in layers, just like the desktop version of Photoshop. But for the majority of us, that's not what iPhoneography is all about. We just want to shoot photos on the go, give the pics a little tweak and then save or share it. Heavy photo editing apps like Photoshop Touch kill that workflow and force you to sit and take your time with an image. If that's your thing, and if you don't mind killing some time in a train or cafe by giving your iPhone photos some extra love, then Photoshop Touch is a killer photo editing app. It has its own filters, and you can make all the same adjustments that you can with other photo apps, but the ability to quickly and easily work in layers is its real selling point. Having the ability to work on different layers for nondestructive editing is great. Again, we prefer to spend more time shooting with our iPhones than squinting and editing photos, but the option for expanded features is nice to have and you can't do better than Photoshop Touch. Hipstamatic And of course, we can't forget Hipstamatic. It sort of helped start the whole iPhoneography movement since it spiced up our otherwise bland and flat photos long before Instagram hit the scene. With its retro skin and vintage films and lenses, Hipstamatic helped give us a look and feel to photos that we grew to love when we were younger. The combination of film and lenses often makes unpredictable results, and that's half the fun of shooting with Hipstamatic. Of course, figuring out which lens and filter combos can get exhausting, too, since there are so many to choose from. Luckily, you can set your favorite combos and just go from there. Perhaps Hipstamatic allows you to get as pure as you can when it comes to iPhoneography. The square format keeps you from hiding your subject, or yourself, and you have to present it all in a way that makes sense. Moreover, since you can't control focus and exposure like with the apps mentioned above, you're really forced to make sure your lighting and composition are near perfect. Then again, you can just shoot on the fly without giving much thought to what you're doing and see what you get. Surprise yourself. There's no right or wrong way to do this, and that's the great thing about Hipstamatic. You can constantly experiment with it and see what works for you. Maybe your look and style will evolve over time, too. You can download it for free in the iTunes App Store, and you can buy additional lenses and films via in-app purchases. Wrap Up You'll probably notice that the list is short, but sweet. We're not trying to give you a "Top 20" list, mostly because you really don't need to have 20 photo editing apps to make a photo look good. And we're firm believers that the less work you do on a photo, the better. We can tell when a photo has been over processed, and it doesn't look pretty. That's it! Go out and shoot! Remember, it's nice to have all these apps and features that help take your iPhoneography to a new level, but in the end, your eye and your vision is what's going to make a great photo - not a 1970s filter with some grain and heavy vignetting. We see the iPhone as a tool that helps develop your eye and creativity as a photographer, which means it forces you to get more creative with light and composition since you don't have a wide selection of focal lengths and exposure controls. Get creative, screw up, take lots of pics. The iPhone has plenty of memory and you can always delete your awful photos. Instead of snapping one photo and moving on from something that caught your eye, sit there for a moment and explore other angles and compositions. Take dozens of photos and pick the best ones later, then use the apps to give them a little more life and make them more interesting. In depth: Five steps to keep your Android phone secure May 20th 2014, 15:27, by Mayank Sharma Introduction You have in your pockets a snooper's best friend. You take it everywhere: from your office to your bedroom, from the dining room to the lavatory (and hopefully clean it after). It records almost everything you do and can be made to turn against you in a matter of minutes. Believe it or not, the modern day smartphone is a private citizen's worst privacy nightmare. Think about what you have in there: email addresses and phone numbers from your contacts, calendar appointments, photos, and probably even personal financial information. On top of that, smartphones can continually track your location to build a detailed profile of your whereabouts. But just because it can doesn't mean you have to let it. Here's five simple steps you can take to control your smartphone security and keep your data, and life, private: 1. Manage your apps To enjoy all the conveniences of a smartphone you need apps. Unfortunately, apps are the weakest link between your private data and the world. Many access your personal data to 'enhance their experience', leaving you to trust that they will only use this data in a desirable way. Unfortunately, not every app clearly states how they use this information. But there are ways to find out what your app knows about you and to restrict them. A critical component of your Android smartphone is the permissions system. When you install an app, it notifies you of what it would like to gain access to. You can then install the app, or not. Unfortunately, this system puts a lot of responsibility on the users to know whether these access requests are appropriate. Fortunately there are multiple ways of visualising app permissions. BitDefender's free Clueful will scan your apps and categorise them as high risk, moderate risk, and low risk. You can then browse each list and click on an app to find out the features it can access. You should uninstall any High Risk apps as they might be pinching your passwords or reading emails. There's also Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware mobile app, which scans apps and divides them into categories based on the phone feature they have access to, such as your calendar or contacts, giving you full transparency on what your apps are up to. 2. Protect yourself online In addition to preventing apps from leaking info, you should also minimise the personal data you put out there, even when sharing something as innocuous as images. Images can reveal a lot of information about you thanks to the exchangeable image file format (EXIF) data attached to them. If you take an image with a GPS-enabled camera or a smartphone it can reveal your location, the time it was taken, as well as the unique ID of the device. To strip EXIF information from pictures before sharing them you can use Instant EXIF Remover. This app doesn't have an interface, instead once installed it'll be available as an option in the 'Share' action. When selected, the app will intercept any images you wish to share and delete all EXIF data, before passing them on to the email client or any other sharing app. After securing your images it's time to take control of your web browsing activities. Just like any desktop web browser you can install a variety of add-ons to your Android browser. The Phony add-on can be used to customise the user-agent on the browser and hide the fact that you are on a mobile device. Then there's Self-Destructing Cookies add-on, which will automatically delete all cookies when you close a site. For more comprehensive control you can use the CleanQuit add-on, which removes all information about the previous session including the browsing & download history and site preferences. If you want full anonymity, you should switch to the Orweb browser. It's loaded with plugins to disguise your device, gives you control over cookies, prevents loading of Flash content and keeps no browsing history. However, it requires the Orbot plugin and Orbot is Tor for Android, which may not be something you wish to install. Protect your communications, device and data 3. Control your communications You can encrypt SMS messages with the open source app TextSecure, which can encrypt SMS stored locally on your phone. However, to send encrypted messages over the air, the recipient must also have TextSecure or they'll receive unencrypted messages. Before you can send messages you'll have to create a secure connection with the recipient's device by exchanging keys. TextSecure will send a message to the recipient, whose TextSecure app will automatically respond with a message to establish a secure connection. From then on you send and receive encrypted messages. To keep your calls safe you can use free RedPhone app for free, which makes encrypted calls over the internet. There's also SilentPhone, which is developed by Phil Zimmerman (who gave us OpenPGP for securing email and ZRTP protocol for securing VoIP calls). The SilentPhone app works on multiple mobile platforms but comes with a $10 (about £6) subscription fee. Both these solutions create encrypted calls. However the person at the other end of the line must be using the same app. To encrypt email messages on your mobile device you need the Android Privacy Guard (APG) app, which is an open source implementation of OpenPGP. You'll also need the K-9 email app, which integrates seamlessly with APG. To use these apps, first launch K-9 and configure it to connect to your email server. Then launch APG and tap the menu button, which brings up the option to manage private keys and public keys. You can export these keys from the desktop and import them into APG. Once the keys are imported, K-9 will display the option to sign and encrypt messages when you write a new email. Conversely it will let you decrypt emails when you receive a new encrypted message. For encrypting instant messages, you'll need the open source ChatSecure app. The app uses the OTR protocol to enable secure chat sessions over XMPP accounts. Using the app you can have secure chats with your friends over popular networks including Google Talk and Facebook on any OTR compatible client including Pidgin, Adium, and Jitsi. 4. Secure your device Locking your phone is one thing, but it doesn't help when you want to hand over an unlocked device to someone but still keep some things private. You can use Screen Locker to lock your screen before handing the phone to someone else. The app disables all forms of inputs and prevents the users from viewing anything other than what's on the screen. You can then enter a preset pattern to unlock the device. Privacy Master Free will lock access to apps and can also fake a crash to prevent an app from launching. You can also block the task manager as well as USB connections. AppLock app has, along with the ability to block access to apps, two separate vaults where you can hide photos and videos. The app can also prevent toggling of settings such as WiFi. One of the best features is its ability to create lock profiles. So you can create a list of apps you want to lock when you in the office, and another set when you're with the kids. You can trigger the locks based on time or location. Applock can also randomly rearrange its numeric keyboard to prevent others from figuring out your password by following your fingers. It also allows you to hide the app from the application drawer to keep its existence on your device a secret. 5. Encrypt your data The key to securing your phone against any sort of surveillance is end-to-end encryption. Encryption safeguards data against any kind of snooping by making it unintelligible to anyone without the correct decryption keys. However, there are some caveats involved with the process. For one, encryption is a one-way process, which is to say that once turned on there's no mechanism to turn off the encryption. You'll have to reset your phone to factory settings and lose all your data. Make sure you securely back up your data before initiating the encryption process and don't interrupt the process - if you do you'll lose the data and render the device unusable. When using the standard Android encryption service make sure you have already set up a lock screen PIN or password. Android will use it as your decryption key. To begin encryption, head to System Settings > Security > Encrypt device. When it's done you'll have to enter the PIN or password each time you boot your phone. Instead of encrypting the whole device, you can also choose to encrypt selected files. One of the best apps for this purpose is SSE Universal Encryption. The app has three modules: the Password Vault module allows you to safely store passwords and organise them into folders. The Message Encryptor module encrypts snippets of text. But the most interesting option is the File/Dir Encryptor module. It lets you pick a file using the built-in file browser and then encrypts it. It's not just your mobile that's insecure - your web browser is too. Analysis: Nokia purchase can give Microsoft the edge over Samsung May 19th 2014, 23:00, by Max Slater-Robins The $7.2 billion deal that allowed Microsoft to purchase Nokia's smartphone division has gone through, giving a new lease of life to the ailing giant, at least in terms of hardware. Having missed out on the smartphone race, and subsequently the tablet race, Microsoft is not in a good position when it comes to mobile. Apple and Google are both making billions of dollars in revenue from mobile devices and services, with Apple generating $45 billion in the second quarter of 2014 selling 47 million iPhones and Google monetising mobile search results and making money from app sales in Google Play. Microsoft, in contrast, is struggling. Whilst the firm's financial situation is secure for now, the majority of their revenue is generated through PCs, Office (the presence of which is lacking on mobile devices) and enterprise software sales, which are intrinsically linked to Office. Right now this is a stable source of revenue, but in a "Post-PC" world — a term coined by Steve Jobs — it is simply unsustainable. It would not be pessimistic to predict the demise of Microsoft within the next two decades as business and consumers shift away from desktops to handheld devices. New stewardship for new era Fortunately, Microsoft now has a new steward in Satya Nadella who has vowed to focus on mobile in a way that Steve Ballmer, the outgoing CEO, simply did not. Microsoft was too early to the smartphone race and then failed to realise the velocity of the shift in attitudes the iPhone would create. Steve Ballmer famously laughed at the iPhone for being too expensive and lacking a keyboard, a view which is preposterous now when most businesses give out work iPhones. In Nokia, Microsoft has found a hardware manufacturer that has already got a road map of products for Windows Phone after their partnership back in 2010 when Nokia agreed to exclusively produce Windows Phone devices. The product of this was the Lumia brand, which has been steadily growing over the past few years, especially in emerging markets such as India and South America. Nokia devices are nicely designed, well made and pair nicely with Windows Phone. Unfortunately for Nokia, they were running out of cash due, in part, to the same reasons as Microsoft: they missed the boat on mobile. Symbian, Nokia's mobile OS offering up until very recently, simply did not have the features or app support of Android or iOS which, coupled with poor hardware, did not bode well. It has been speculated that Nokia would have gone out of business long ago if it were not for the cash given by Microsoft in exchange for the Windows Phone exclusivity deal. The next move So what can Microsoft do with Nokia? The answer is anything they like, which is a good thing. Nokia will have a road map of future products, just as all the giant companies do, which gives Microsoft a runway to launch from. Microsoft have billions of dollars in the bank and a massive cash flow which can bankroll the pushing of Lumia devices to consumers through advertising then hopefully creating the sacred word-of-mouth marketing that sells iPhones and Samsung Galaxies by the million. Nokia's design know-how could also be integrated into Microsoft's design ideas for their current hardware (and software, potentially). The Surface tablets are nicely designed but lack the flair of the Lumia phone range or Lumia 2520 tablet, which should no longer be a problem. Windows Phone as a platform is maturing, and the deal can only improve the integration of hardware and software that customers seem to love in Apple devices. Specific software features could be tailored to the phone's hardware, just as Apple does with Touch ID on the iPhone 5S. Ready to catch Samsung Features like this can provide a multitude of unique selling points for Microsoft to tout, giving them a genuine edge over Samsung devices whose software is created by Google. Microsoft could integrate a finger print reader or various other biometric sensors into future Lumia devices meaning they can compete with Apple if they move into fitness, as rumours from Cupertino are suggesting. Even more specifically, Microsoft could leverage the hardware capabilities that they have just acquired to make a wearable device, such as a 'smart watch' or another wearable device. Just as Google has Android Wear for wearable devices, Microsoft could create a version of Windows Phone that would work on a wearable device. The 'Modern UI' aesthetic could easily be paired down to suit a smaller, wrist-mounted display with an iPod Nano-style interface displaying a Live Tile per home screen. All of this is possible now that Microsoft has acquired a hardware manufacturer, and it means that Microsoft has accelerated back into relevancy.

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