Image credit: JESHOOTS / Pixabay

Donna writes, “I share a data plan with my family. I’m the biggest user of data, but I’m also the least tech savvy. I do very little downloading! I mostly just check emails. If someone sends me a link and I open it, am I downloading? Sometimes I use my iPhone as a hotspot for my laptop. Is that downloading? Why am I using so much data?”

Any time your phone gets information over the Internet, Donna, that counts against your data plan. This includes reading an email, opening a link from that email, and using your phone as a hotspot so your laptop can connect to the Internet.

In fact, that last one is one of the most data-intensive activities you can do with your phone. Your laptop is a powerful machine that can request a lot of data in a hurry, especially if you have more than one website open at a time. All of the images, ads and videos on those sites are being downloaded through your phone?s connection, which can eat up a lot of data really fast. This is why most websites offer lightweight versions that are optimized for browsing on phones and mobile devices.

Other activities that can use a lot of data include streaming music through apps like Spotify and Pandora, downloading podcasts, and even sharing those vacation pictures you snapped with your friends on Facebook or Instagram. If you do a lot of driving, navigation apps like Google Maps and Apple Maps can also use a lot of data downloading directions and maps.

The sneakiest drainers of data plans we’ve found are free games. While you downloaded basically all of the data for those games when you first got them from the app store, that didn’t include those annoying little ads you see while you’re playing them. Those ads are downloaded while you’re running the app, chewing up your data plan in the process.

It may seem like everyone is after your data plan, but luckily there is a way to stop them: Wi-Fi. When your phone is connected to a wireless network, it uses Wi-Fi to download things instead of your cell data. We recommend turning off your cell data and using Wi-Fi any time you’re at home or work. If you don’t have a home wireless network, you may want to consider setting one up. This will cost some money, but it will almost definitely be cheaper than paying overage charges to your carrier.

Also, all wireless providers offer a special phone number you can call or text to see what your current monthly usage is. Find out what yours is and take advantage of it before you get slapped with fees!

This week, Comcast can’t keep itself out of the news. First, Comcast announces that it is bringing the fastest Interwebs in the country to Jacksonville (WOOT!) and other cities in Florida. Then, the FCC and the Justice Department rain on Comcast’s parade and lets it know they are not going to let it merge with Time Warner Cable. In other news, a paranoid dad flew a drone to school with his daughter, and two guys took the iPhone/Android fight way too far.

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THIS WEEK’S RUN DOWN

Comcast Gigabit Pro

People in Jacksonville and some other towns in Florida are going to be pretty excited next month. In a story Jessica Palombo contributed to Deemable.com, Comcast is bringing the fastest fiber optic Internet service in the country to a few cities in Florida, including our own fair town. The service, which is called Gigabit Pro, will actually have 2 Gbps download and upload speeds ? more than twice the speed of Google Fiber.

However, Comcast would not give a price for the new service. The next fastest service from Comcast is Extreme 505, which runs up to 505 Mbps up and down, and costs over $400 a month with taxes and fees.

Comcast Drops Its Bid to Merge With Time Warner Cable

Speaking of Comcast, earlier this week it was looking pretty  looked bad for its merger with Time Warner Cable. According to Bloomberg, the Justice Department’s antitrust department was going to recommend blocking the merger. And, the FCC was not negotiating the terms of the deal with Comcast, which made it look even less likely that it was going to go through.

But now, ?people with knowledge of the matter? have told Bloomberg that Comcast is backing out of the merger. There was supposed to be a board meeting Thursday. And an official  announcement will probably come Friday.

As the Verge pointed out in an editorial, throughout this whole process, Comcast has never answered this simple question: Why not compete?

Verizon to offer custom pay TV packages, let customers choose monthly programming bundles

And while we?re on the subject of Internet and TV providers, in move that is one small step closer to a la carte cable TV, Verizon recently announced that they are rolling out a new pay TV service that will let customers choose from channel bundles that they change monthly.

These Verizon FiOS ?Custom TV? packages will start at 65 dollars a month for broadband service, 36 fixed basic cable channels, and two genre-based channel packs that customers can swap or unsubscribe from after a month. You can also add packs for an extra 10 dollars. Verizon has seven of these packs to choose from, including sports and children?s programming.

Verizon says they are going after customers who want something in between giant, fully loaded cable packages and cheaper basic packages offered by their competitors.

After “Drone Dad” follows his daughter to school, DJI Phantom 2 grounded

Tennessee father Chris Early?s daughter decided she wanted to walk to the school bus by herself so he did what any tech-inclined father would do: he followed her with a drone.

The drone was a model known as a DJI Phantom 2 which has a high def video camera mounted on it. Early followed his daughter with the drone. A local news station caught wind of this and the story went nationwide. Chris Early has been called ?overprotective?, ?the world?s most embarrassing father? and ‘drone dad’. As a result of all the attention he says he has grounded the drone for now.

One World Trade Center Elevator Shows 515 Years Of New York City

One World Trade Center has added an elevator that displays 515 years of New York City history in 50 seconds.

The New York Times covered this story, but I wrote an article about it for Deemable.com.

While they haven?t developed time travel, the engineers and designers behind the elevators that takes guests to the observatory at the very top of One World Trade Center in New York City have come pretty close. When you board the elevators, you will see a panoramic view of New York City rising out of the underground in the 1500s all the way up through time to the 102nd floor today.

The elevator uses nine 75-inch screens to create the illusion that it is a glass-walled elevator traveling through time.

Along the way, you’ll see the arrival of the Europeans, the Revolution and the rise of the skyscrapers. Inevitably, as time travels through the late-1900s, one of the Twin Towers enters your sight and just as quickly fades away as the 2000s begin. It is a touching, beautiful memorial to the history of the site. You can see The New York Times video of the elevator on our website at Deemable.com

YouTube celebrates 10 year anniversary

This week marks the 10 year anniversary of the first video being uploaded to YouTube.

On April 23 2005, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim posted a 19 second clip of elephants at the zoo titled “Me at the zoo.”  In it, Karim discusses the elephants’ “really, really, really long trunks” and, well, that’s all. Pretty tame compared to what you can find on YouTube today.

About a year after this video was posted, Google acquired YouTube for $1.6 billion.

According to reports, YouTube will mark the anniversary with a month-long celebration starting next week.

Skycure Hack Can Use Wifi To Disable iOS Devices

A research firm called Skycure reported that it has developed a hack based around a bug in iOS that could allow it to disable all nearby iOS devices using a wifi router. The wifi router has to be configured in a specific way. It will then cause any device connected to it to keep crashing and rebooting in an endless loop. It can be combined with another hack that forces iOS devices to connect to that network. Essentially the only way to escape the endless cycle of rebooting would be to get out of range of the router.

Skycure has not publicly released technical specifications for the bug it used to create the hack to give Apple time to patch it.

Argument Over Which Smartphone Is Better Turns Deadly

Police in Tulsa, OK apprehended a man staggering around a parking lot late at night cut up and covered in blood. The man reported to them that he had been in a fight with his roommate over which smartphone was better – the iPhone or the new Samsung Galaxy. iPhone versus Android fights can get heated, but most stop short of physical conflict. The man reported that he and his roommate had been drinking and wound up stabbing each other with broken beer bottles. Both were admitted to the hospital and are expected to make a full recovery. No word on whether either man was arrested or whether either had his mind changed about his preferred choice of phone.

How many tabs does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

Redditor Peanut Butter Shudder suggested an answer to Ray’s question. Last week during Shower Thoughts, Ray said he didn’t know how many tabs he had ever opened in his life. Peanut Butter Shudder mentioned Tab for a Cause on our reddit page (reddit.com/r/deemable) Tab for a Cause apparently tracks how many tabs you open and it has a bit of slacktivism built into it. If you install the browser extension, you’ll raise money for charities simply by browsing the internet. Heck, why not?

Who had the best segue?

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Photo credit: iPhone vs Android by nrkbeta.no is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.

If you’re like us, you probably got a shiny new smartphone or tablet for the holidays. Here are our tips for keeping that device looking brand new, and few ideas for what you can do with your old one.

Protect Your New Device

An iPhone 4 in an Otterbox Impact case. Image credit: gisuser / Flickr

The first thing you should do with your new device is put a case on it. We can’t stress how important this is. It breaks our hearts to see people with gadgets that came out not even a month ago, and they’ve already broken the screen.

There are a ton of different kinds of cases out there. If you’re really concerned about protecting your device, we recommend a hefty case from companies like Otterbox, Lifeproof or Griffin. Both brands offer cases that are rated for protecting against drops from normal heights and have material to keep your screen scratch-free. Some of them even claim to be waterproof.

If you don’t want to hide your fancy new smartphone or tablet, a number of companies sell thin, clear plastic cases. These will not offer the same level of protection as an Otterbox case, but they will be better than nothing. Look around online or head to pretty much any store that sells electronics to find one that best fits your needs.

If you decide not to get a case (or even if you do), you should seriously consider buying an extended warranty for your device. For most electronics, we don’t feel like extended warranties are worth the money. However, they are a godsend for smartphones, especially if they cover accidents

Whether you get an extended warranty or not, take the time right now to figure out how long your warranty will last. A year is pretty standard for a new smartphone, but be sure to double check. It also helps to mark that date on your calendar or set a reminder. If your device starts acting funny, you can make sure to get it taken care of before that timer runs out.

With a good warranty, the device maker will often send you a new one before you mail back your old one so that you don’t have to be device-less for any longer than necessary.

What to Do With Your Old One

If you’re not planning to keep your old smartphone or tablet as a backup or for archival purposes, you should consider selling it or recycling it.

To get the best price, you’ll want to sell it on Craigslist or eBay. The downside to Craigslist is that you have to meet strangers from the internet in real-life. The downside the eBay is that you have to go to Post Office or the UPS store. You can try searching through other auctions and online for a good idea of how much your device is worth in the condition it is in.

If you have a fairly new gadget like an iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy 4, you could also check out places like Amazon and Gazelle. They will buy your phone online and pay you fast. Or you can trade in your iPhone at the Apple Store, Best Buy, Game Stop and Target. You won’t get as much selling your iPhone or Android phone to the big companies, but you’ll get rid of it fast and get your money fast. So, if convenience is what matters to you, that’s the route we would go.

If you have a smartphone that you think is too old to sell, or you just want to do something nice for others, there are a lot of charitable organizations that can make good use of your old device.

If your phone can at least still make phone calls, you can drop it off at any Verizon Wireless store and they will get it into the hands of someone who needs it. Through their program HopeLine, they collect phones and give them to victims of domestic abuse.

If your phone is completely dead, there are charities that accept electronics that can recycle them and get money to go towards their efforts. As always, make sure that you trust the charity you are giving to.

Also, many cities have e-waste recycling centers for computers and other electronics. Try looking on your city’s website to see if there is one near you.

No matter what you decide to do with your old device, you need to make sure you wipe its memory and reset it to factory default if possible. The last thing you want is for your personal information to fall into the wrong hands. Your device should have come with instructions on how to reset it. We’ve got full details on how to do it for iPhones, iPads and Android phones in this article.

Q: I recently changed my e-mail password, and now my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone will not show my e-mails. I assume the old password is somehow encoded in the phone. I cannot find a way within the “setting” folder to put the new password in to access the e-mails. How can I now access my e-mails on the S4?

A: Dale, it sounds like you are looking in the settings for the email app, but you won’t find it there!

Image Credit: Simon / Pixabay

Android phones, including the Samsung Galaxy models, store all the big, important passwords, like email accounts and social media accounts, in the same place. You need to bring up “settings”. Not the settings for the email app, but the main settings menu that you get to from the desktop.

Then you need to scroll way down. You’re looking for a section called “Accounts”. Keep scrolling down until you find it. Under that you should see an option called “Email”. Tap that. Then tap “Settings”. Then tap your email address again. Now you should see a page with a bunch of options, including one that says “password” – tap that and enter your new password.

Basically, any time you want to change a major password you have to go under “Accounts” under your main settings. Your email login, your Facebook login, your Twitter login, your LinkedIn login, it’s all stored there. These are all apps that have deep, native integration into the Android operating system, so it actually makes some sense for them to be stored down in the main settings of the phone.

That’s pretty similar to how it is handled on the iPhone and iPad too. Under the Settings app, you tap “Mail, Contacts, and Calendars”, then tap the account and tap your email address, then enter the correct password.

Q: My husband and I are retiring in two years. We plan on selling our house and becoming international vagabonds. What kind of things do I need to do so we can use technology to our best advantage during our travels. We use Apple because it seems simple. Should I take a laptop or will a tablet work?

Image credit: Phil Long / Flickr

A: Sounds like you’ll be living the dream, Pam! If you have both a laptop and a tablet, we say take them both. But if you have to pick one, take a laptop. You’re going to get tired of typing emails and messages on a tablet before too long. There is a whole class of ultra-thin and lightweight laptops called “ultrabooks” which would work great for traveling.

The great news is that either one will work – just as long as you have the right adapter plugs, which you can get a set of at just about any big box store.

The great thing about electronics in the last couple of decades is that the power bricks dangling off them are designed to take from 100 to 240 watts of power, which basically covers all the power levels you are likely to encounter. Most electronic devices can handle all the standard voltages as well, so you just need the right adapter for the power sockets of the country you’re in.

Once you have power, you’ll want internet access. Getting online with your laptop or tablet can be easy if you’re in a place where you have Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is a world-wide standard, so your device can connect to Japanese or Italian Wi-Fi just as easily as American Wi-Fi.

Smart phones are trickier, though. Basically you have two options: you can buy cheap, disposable phones and SIM cards in every country you travel to, or you can invest in a “world phone”. These are smart phones that operate on almost every carrier, which when paired with world-roaming data plans can be used basically anywhere. However, this can get pretty expensive fast. Our advice is to stick to Wi-Fi when you can, and try calling land-lines using Skype. You can read more about using your phone in a different country in this article.

Q: How can I keep up with my monthly usage on my iPhone? I want to be able to find out how much data and how many texts I have left.

A: There’s nothing worse than going over your monthly limit and getting slapped with a huge phone bill. Fortunately, checking your usage is easy, so there’s no need for nasty surprises. Virtually all smartphones, including the iPhone, have built-in tools that monitor monthly data usage.

You can see your iPhone usage under the “Cellular” menu in the Settings app.
Image credit: Annie Black / WJCT

Just open the Settings app and tap “Cellular,” and you will see your usage. Of course, your iPhone doesn’t automatically know when your billing cycle begins, so you’ll need to reset it at the beginning of the cycle. At the bottom of that “Cellular” menu, there is a button that says “Reset Statistics.” Hit this on the first day of your billing cycle and the tracking on your iPhone should be fairly accurate.

For Android phones, just open up Settings and tap “Data Usage.” You can also set your billing cycle on this screen, and you don’t even have to wait until the beginning of the cycle to change this setting.

There’s actually another way to check your usage, no matter what kind of smartphone you have, that is as simple as making a phone call. Each of the major U.S. cell phone carriers has a free service which will automatically send you a text message with your current usage details when you dial a special number. Checking your monthly usage this way may be more accurate in some cases, since the information is coming straight from your cell phone carrier.

For Verizon, dial #DATA.

For AT&T, dial *DATA#.

For T-Mobile, dial #WEB#.

Sprint is the only one that works differently. They don’t send you a text, but there is an automated hotline that will tell you the information. Dial *4 to get to it.

You can keep your monthly data usage to a minimum by waiting until you’ve got a Wi-Fi connection to watch videos or download big apps. When you’re connected to Wi-Fi, you aren’t dipping into your data plan.

Another way you may be able to save data is by using what are called “zero rated” apps, which are now being offered by many carriers. Even though “zero rated” apps use data, they don’t count towards your monthly data cap. For instance, on T-Mobile, music streaming apps like Pandora, iTunes Radio and Spotify are “zero rated” so they won’t eat into your precious monthly data usage. Different carriers have different policies and different apps, so be sure to check with whoever your carrier is.

Q: I’m looking at opening a food truck. I’ve seen other food trucks and hot dogs stands taking credit cards on their phones. How can I do that? What kind of phone do I have to have, and does it cost a lot of money?

A: Smartphones have opened up a whole new way for mobile vendors to accept credit card payments. Gone are the days of having to use one of those bulky carbon copy imprinters with hefty fees, high transactions costs and no way to prove if the credit card you were charging was even a real credit card.

You have a few different options that you can choose from, Norman, but the three most popular are Square, PayPal Here and Intuit GoPayment. All three are small devices that plug into the headphone jack of your iPhone or Android phone.

Square

Square pioneered mobile credit card processing with their small, square (hence the name) credit card readers. Once you get your Square reader and download and install the free Square Register app, you’ll be ready to start accepting credit cards. You can even add your entire inventory to the app, and use it as your point of sale terminal right there on your phone. Transactions you ring up before 5 p.m. are credited to your bank account the following business day. Square charges 2.75% per swipe.

PayPal

PayPal, the company that pioneered online credit card transactions, entered the mobile game a bit later than Square with their credit card reader, a blue triangle known as the PayPal Here. PayPal Here also offers a point of sale app to go along with the device. Money from real world transactions made using this device is sent directly to your PayPal account. From there the money can be spent online or transferred to your bank account. PayPal Here charges 2.7% per swipe.

Intuit GoPayment

Intuit, the company that makes Quicken account software, makes the Intuit GoPayment card reader and app. It’s about the same shape as a roll of quarters, but a bit shorter. While the GoPayment is physical the biggest one we’ve seen, it charges less per transaction than Square or PayPal Here: 2.4% per swipe. The Intuit QuickBooks GoPayment app also integrates with Quicken and many other small business apps.

As the mobile payment industry keeps growing, more and more companies are starting to jump in. Amazon recently debuted a mobile credit card reader. Almost all of the traditional credit card processors like BluePay, Verifone and Chase have also launched their own readers. Even office supply retailer Staples has gotten in on the action.

You have a lot of options to choose from, Norman, and you can get just about all of them for free with no contract. Our advice is that you try all of them until you find the one that fits your needs the best.

Q: I am giving my old phone to a friend. How do I make sure I’ve gotten all my private data off it first?

A: That’s a great question, Trent, and one that everyone who owns a smartphone probably needs to know the answer to. Our smartphones hold all kinds of personal data, like our contact list, browser history and even our credit card information. Before you give your phone to someone, exchange it for a different model or even throw it away, you need to make sure you wipe all of this information off of it first.

Image credit: Josh Miller / CNET

Fortunately, every smartphone comes with the ability to reset it to what the manufacturers refer to as “factory settings”. This wipes the device completely, and turns it into a blank slate just like the day you bought it. Of course, you need to make sure you perform a full backup of your phone before you even think about wiping it.

To do a factory reset on an iPhone, you’ll need to open the “Settings” app, tap “General” and find the “Reset” button at the bottom of that screen. Tap this and you’ll see a few options including “Erase All Content and Settings,” which is the one you want. If you tap this, a message will pop up asking you to confirm that you really want to do this because it will erase everything. Hit yes and the reset begins.

The process for resetting Android phones can differ from model to model, but most of them are pretty similar. For example, to wipe a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, you would just go to the “Settings” menu, tap “Backup and Reset” and hit the “Factory Data Reset” option. Be sure to read through the manual of your specific smartphone to find the directions.

Your phone will take a minute or two to reset to factory settings. Once it’s done, it should be just like you’re turning it on for the first time. Now you can give away your phone without worrying about your private information falling into the wrong hands.

There’s one more thing we should mention if your smartphone has a removable SD card. Resetting the phone to factory settings will not erase the data on that card, so you’ll need to erase the files off of it separately. If your phone comes with a file manager app, you can do it through that. You can also connect your phone to your computer, open the SD card and drag the files to the trash. Or you can keep it simple and just remove the SD card from the phone.

Every once in a while we like to cover something everyone should know, and this time we wanted to talk about securing your personal information – on your smartphone.

Image credit: Kelvinsong / Wikimedia

If you own a smartphone, you probably keep tons of personal information on it: your address book, emails, passwords, maybe even credit card data. Your phone knows where you work and where you live and who is texting you. It’s a gold mine for everyone from phone thieves to advertisers to hackers.

Many smartphone owners would be surprised at how easy it is to learn some basic hacks which allow you to extract data from someone else’s smartphone. But there are a few simple steps that they can take to make it much harder.

We want to emphasize that it’s probably impossible to completely hacker-proof your phone. If government spies are trying to break into your phone, they are probably going to get in. But you can stop your run of the mill identity thieves.

Tip #1: Lock your smartphone!

It’s so simple, and yet so effective! Why should someone bother hacking into your phone when they can just pick it up and see everything on it? You need a lockscreen with a password or an unlock pattern or a fingerprint scanner. Using a password is the most secure technique, and the more characters you have to enter, the better. But even a simple pin code or unlock pattern is better than nothing.

Most Android phones support unlock patterns. If you use one, though, you should take one extra step for security: wipe down your phone?s screen frequently! This way a thief can’t simply follow the smudged fingerprints on the screen to determine your unlock pattern.

Here’s another lock screen tip for those of you with iPhones: by default, iPhones allow you to do a few things without unlocking your phone, like voice dialing and previewing texts. You can disable this, though, and you should. Unless you like the idea of a stranger at the coffee shop reading your texts!

Tip #3: Don’t connect to open Wi-Fi networks!

Avoid that free coffee shop Wi-Fi if it doesn’t have a password! Any device, whether it?s a phone or a tablet or a laptop, which is connected to an open Wi-Fi is a hacker?s dream. With some basic software installed, a hacker can see almost everything anyone on the Wi-Fi network is doing – sending emails, logging into Facebook, etc.

The good news is, people are wising up to the fact that having unsecured Wi-Fi is not a good idea. Some places still offer it, though. If you don?t have to ask for a password to get in, it?s probably not a good idea to use that Wi-Fi.

Speaking of Wi-Fi: if you got your iPhone from AT&T it has an interesting extra feature. Any time an AT&T iPhone detects a Wi-Fi network called attwifi, it will automatically try to connect to it. That’s a problem, to put it bluntly. A hacker could just setup a network, call it attwifi, and wait for people?s phones to automatically connect to it so they can extract information. The good news is, this is a feature you can turn off on your iPhone, and you should. Just open the Settings app, tap Wi-Fi, and tap the check box next to ?Ask to join networks?. And contact AT&T customer support and tell them that you don’t approve of them making their customers’ phones vulnerable in this way.

Tip #4: Turn off location tagging on your smartphone’s camera

When you take a picture with your smartphone, it adds the GPS coordinates of the place where you took the picture to the image file. Later on, that can help you remember where you took the picture at. That’s convenient, but many times when you upload that picture to a website or email it to a friend, the GPS coordinates remain embedded in the file. Anyone who has that picture can figure out where you took it. And if it’s your house, well, now they know where you live. And that?s no good.

You can turn this feature off on Android phones, although the details depend on what phone you have. You should be able to find instructions with a Google search. On an iPhone, go to Settings, and then privacy, and then Location services and then you should see an option for the camera. Switch that to off.

Tip #5: Require a password for purchases

This is something we’ve talked about before, but it?s worth repeating: both Android and iPhone allow you to set a password on the phone that must be entered before you can make purchases on the phone. Stopping kids or others from running up charges on your phone is always a great idea.

Tip #6: Disable third party cookies

Everybody likes cookies, right? Well, maybe not if they are cookies on your computer which can allow advertisers to track what websites you visit. For those readers who don?t know, a cookie is a small text file that a website places on your computer or smartphone. They can be used to help websites remember to automatically log you in, which is great. But they can also help advertisers to track you which not everybody likes.

On the iPhone’s Safari browser you can stop this. Safari lets you disable ‘third party cookies’, which are the kind of cookies that many people don’t want, the kind that help advertisers offer targeted ads. Most browsers now offer a ‘DO NOT TRACK’ option as well. It’s a good idea to turn this on. Now here?s the thing, the ‘do not track’ option is not universally respected. There are some advertisers that will ignore it and track you anyway. But it can?t hurt to have it turned on.

Tip #7: Wipe your personal data before you return your phone to the store

Occasionally you may need to take your smartphone somewhere to get it repaired or to swap it for a working model. Before you do this, it’s a really good idea to wipe all of your personal data from your phone! What you need to do is reset your phone to factory defaults. Your smartphone should come with instructions on how to do this. Of course you should backup all your personal data before you do this as it WILL be erased!

So these are just a few tips that will help you keep the personal data on your smartphone more secure from thieves, from hackers and even from advertisers. And if nothing else, you should always, always –

LOCK YOUR PHONE.

Q: My smartphone (a Casio G’zOne) displayed a warning yesterday saying that it had a virus. I didn’t do anything as I’ve been told the warning is the actual virus. How can I tell if the phone has virus protection installed? If not, can I download it for the phone?

Image credit: Casio

A: Charles, let us set your mind at ease. It is very unlikely that your smart phone has a virus. What you saw was most likely a scam – a banner ad trying to trick you into buying something or clicking on something that you shouldn’t. Uninstall whatever app you saw that in, and you should be fine.

Smartphones work differently than PCs. A program on a PC basically has the run of the computer and can do anything it wants. But an app on a smartphone gets put in a little sandbox, and it is very limited in what it can do. This makes it harder for a classic virus to be effective on a phone.

That isn’t to say that a smartphone could never get a virus, but we have yet to see any big ones on Android or iOS that users need to worry about. If that ever happens, we will be the first ones to let you know.

If you still don’t feel safe, you can download anti-virus apps that will check for bad stuff on your phone, but recent studies have found that a lot of the free ones are basically useless. They catch very few pieces of malware, and can slow down your phone considerably. There are also paid apps from big anti-virus companies like Symantec, BitDefender and Trend Micro, but these too take up a lot of memory and will affect your phone’s performance.

What you really need to watch out for aren’t viruses, they’re malicious apps. Apps available in the the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store have been screened by those companies, and are trustworthy 99.99% of the time. But if you download and install an app from an unofficial source (this is known as “side-loading”), you run the risk of getting something dangerous. Most people who side-load apps are trying to install free versions of games you normally have to pay for, which is basically like catnip for hackers. Our advice is to never side-load an app unless you’re confident of what it is and know the people who made it.

So, Charles, don’t worry too much about that warning you saw. If you play it safe when you’re surfing the web, and make sure you’re only downloading apps from official places, you should be fine.

Q: I’m taking a trip to Costa Rica soon, and I need a simple phone to use while I’m there. I know very little about cell phones. What sort of phone should I buy for international travel, and what do I need to know to make sure it will work before the trip?

A: Finding the right phone for international travel can get complicated and expensive in a hurry. Whatever you do, don’t just take your normal phone to Central America and start racking up roaming charges. They start at ridiculous and go up from there. If your phone even works there, that is.

You’ve got your passport and your traveler’s cheques packed, but what about your phone?Image credit: Andrew Catellier / Flickr

You see, there are two main types of cell networks worldwide: GSM and CDMA. GSM is the worldwide standard while CDMA is most common in the US. So you really want a GSM phone, specifically a “quad band” GSM phone. A “quad band” GSM phone will work on just about any cell network in any country. One such phone is the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 5 also supports quad band… providing you bought yours in Europe.

The type of network your phone is compatible with is determined by the carrier you bought it for. The US carriers that use GSM are AT&T and T-Mobile. Sprint and Verizon use CDMA. LTE networks are basically all completely incompatible with each other (which is why American iPhone 5’s will most likely not work in another country). Once you have a quad-band GSM phone, you will need to buy an international SIM card so you can make calls without racking up astronomical roaming charges.

Now, if this all sounds complicated, that’s because it is. Don’t fret, though, because there’s a simple trick to finding a phone that is guaranteed to work cheaply in the country you are visiting: wait until you get to Costa Rica, and buy a phone there. When you arrive in Costa Rica, go to the local mobile store and buy the cheapest prepaid cell phone you can find. We be there will be one you can buy for under $30 (US dollars). Whatever you do, don’t buy a phone or SIM card at or near the airport, because prices are almost always much higher there. Once you get out of the airport, ask a local to point you to a good, cheap store.

Of course, you won’t be able to call your folks in Sarasota on your el cheapo Costa Rican prepaid phone, Ric. But there’s an easy solution for that, too. You can use the popular Internet telephony software Skype to call real phone numbers, anywhere in the world. It’s not free, but it’s very cheap. Before you leave, buy some Skype credit, download the Skype app for your smartphone, and take it with you to Costa Rica. Then when you’re on Wi-Fi, just log in to Skype and call home like normal!

In general, buying a cheap phone in the country you will be visiting is a good plan, and pretty foolproof. However if you expect to be traveling to multiple countries, or you need to call other countries while you’re there and you won’t have consistent access to Wi-Fi, you need an unlocked, quad-band GSM phone and an international SIM card. You can buy prepaid international SIM cards from companies like Telestial and OneSimCard for under $50. Just remember, you’ll need a phone to match.

To sum up, if you absolutely have to make a lot of international calls while you’re there, you’ll need an unlocked, quad-band GSM phone such as the iPhone 4S and an international SIM card. If not, you can just buy a cheap prepaid phone once you land.

I’ve been proud Android smartphone user for a couple of years now. I’m a big fan and I’ll stack a top-of-the-line Android phone up against an iPhone any day of the week, but I have to admit that Apple does a much, much better job of publicizing their phones’ features.

I recently purchased the Samsung Galaxy SIII, widely considered to be the best Android phone on the market today (and I mean exactly at the time I’m writing this – because tomorrow, who knows!). But what makes this phone so special? Pick it up and start playing with it and your first impressions will likely be, ?It’s so fast! It’s so thin! It’s so shiny!? But like me, you probably won’t have a clue about all the cool things it can do initially*. The GS3 is much more than just a pretty face: it’s stuffed with innovative features. You just have to know where to find them.

I’ve been doing a little research into my new smartphone and have been completely blown away by some of the features I’ve discovered. Here are some of the coolest hidden things that your Samsung Galaxy SIII can do:

The Best Part of Waking Up is Your Samsung Galaxy SIII

Set your alarm mode to ‘briefing’ to wake up feeling like Tony Stark!

Remember that scene from Iron Man where the girl at Tony Stark’s house is woken up by a computerized voice greeting her and reading the surf and weather report? Yeah, the GS3 can totally do that. It will also read you the top news headline and tell you about any events on today’s calendar.

Oh, and if all that’s too much for you at 6:45 AM in the morning you can just shout ?SNOOZE!? at it and it will leave you alone for another ten minutes.

You can find all these features under the options for the pre-installed Clock app. Just create an alarm and set it to ?briefing’ mode.

Talk To Me, Baby

Samsung’s S-Voice is absolutely nothing like Siri, really!

The GS3 comes pre-installed with something called S-Voice, which is apparently Samsung’s latest effort to get sued by Apple for blatantly ripping off Siri. S-Voice has some cool features, but in practice it just doesn’t work that well and seems kind of gimmicky. But you don’t need it anyway. The GS3 runs Ice Cream Sandwich, and its voice recognition capabilities are already phenomenal.

Talk to the one thing that really understands you… your phone!

Tired of typing out your text messages? Why not just speak them instead? Click the microphone icon on the on-screen keyboard and just start talking. The phone’s voice recognition is impressively fast and accurate. Many of the pre-installed apps also understand voice commands: you can answer or reject an incoming call by just saying ?Answer? or ?Reject?, you can take photos by saying ?Capture? or ?Cheese? and you can even use voice commands to adjust the volume on the music player.

To activate these features and learn more about them, go to the main Settings for the phone, then select ?Language and Input? and click on ?Voice cmd for apps.? You can also set the phone for ?Driving Mode? where incoming calls and new notifications will be read out to you by your phone.

Lock Screen Love

Ooh, looks like I’ve got mail!

Besides the oh-so-pretty ripple effect that follows your finger when you slide-to-unlock, the GS3’s lock screen offers quick access to all kinds of features. Note the four icons at the bottom: they are customizable, and dragging your finger up from any of them (say, for example, the camera) will load that app immediately. You can also drag the notification bar down to check out alerts without having to unlock your phone. Text messages float in the lock screen, and appointment reminders will replace it until you tell them to go away. You can also configure your lock screen to show the weather or a stock ticker.

All of this can be configured from Settings > Security > Lock screen options.

One last lock screen feature I want to mention is cheating a little bit since I’m mostly talking about stock, pre-installed apps here, but this is too cool to pass over: download the free app ?Tiny Flashlight + LED? from the Play Market. It turns your phone’s LED camera flash into a very bright flashlight at the touch of a button, which is nice, but not revolutionary. But if you go into the settings (by touching the circle at the upper right of the app, then the tool icon) you’ll discover that you can set it to turn on for 20 seconds just by shaking the phone when you’re on the lock screen. So if your power goes out and all of a sudden you’re in the dark you just pull out your phone and give it a shake and you’re back in business. Nice.

Shake It Like A Polaroid Picture

The first thing that any new GS3 owner should do with their phone is to go to the main settings menu and select ?Motion’. Every smartphone owner knows about simple touch gestures like flicking up and down a list to scroll quickly or pinch-to-zoom (although the calendar app adds a cool use for this – zooming in and out of calendar, from days to weeks to months), but Samsung and Google have added an impressive number of intuitive motions to the gesture control alphabet.

A few of my favorites: swipe left on a contact to text them, swipe right to call them. Want to capture what’s on your screen? Swipe your entire hand across it. Ever had a text message conversation get to the point where you realize that it’s simpler to just pick up the phone and call the person? While on the text message screen, pick up the phone and hold it to your ear and the GS3 will make the call. Brilliant!

Shaking also happens to be the default ?refresh’ motion for many things. From the Bluetooth screen or the Wi-Fi screen try shaking your phone to look for nearby networks and devices.

There are too many motion-activated abilities on this phone to list here, but that’s okay. Clicking on any of them in the settings menu will allow you to enter a tutorial mode where you can try the gesture out for yourself. You’ll be panning, tilting and shaking in no time flat.

Pics Or It Didn’t Happen

If you’ve seen the TV commercials for the Samsung Galaxy S3, you know that it is supposed to allow you to watch a video and do other things with the phone, such as text. This actually works as advertised – clicking the box in the lower right hand corner of a video will put it in a small window and then you’re free to navigate the phone as usual while the video plays. Why you’d want to do this is another question entirely. For my money, there are several video and camera features on the phone that are far more useful.

The camera offers the ability to take a bunch of shots and then stitch them together into a panorama. It works pretty seamlessly. After you’re done, you can hold the screen and move the phone back and forth to sweep across the scene. There is also a burst mode for taking a bunch of shots back to back. But one of my favorite features, which I mentioned before, is being able to stabilize the camera with both hands and tell it to take a picture by saying ?shoot? or ?capture.?

Flicking a toggle on the camera screen switches over to video mode. A cool feature in video mode is that you can snap still shots while you are recording! You can also pinch-to-zoom to zoom in the camera.

It’s the Little Things

There’s so much more. You probably figured you could assign your contacts custom ringtones, but did you know you can also assign them custom vibration patterns? Love of your life calling? How about giving them the ?heartbeat’ vibration? Hair stylist? You can drum out a custom pattern: ?Shave-and-a-haircut, two bits.?

The Samsung Galaxy SIII does a great job of making the basic jobs of smartphones fast, easy and hassle-free. You don’t have to know about any of these features to really enjoy using it. But this phone is packed with clever little surprises that can make your life that much easier, so it’s worth exploring!

* To be fair, Samsung does discuss some of these ?hidden’ features in the phone’s thick manual. But who actually reads those things??