Ditch OS X Mavericks for Lion

It often seems to me that the more complex things get, the more bugs there are and while new technology is in many ways fantastic, it can also be a source of frustration. Although there is much to like in OS X Mavericks on the Apple iMac or MacBook, it has some frustrating bugs too.

Mavericks has only been out a few weeks, yet Apple has already released a beta of a service pack to developers. Apple doesn't call them service packs, but each 0.0.1 update is essentially a service pack. OS X 10.9.1 is currently being tested and it won't be long before it is pushed out to the public. Let's hope it fixes some of the bugs that many people have been experiencing.

My own irritations are mainly with Finder and Cover Flow view is so unreliable I have given up using it. Select a file in the bottom part of the Finder window and Cover Flow view shows a preview in the top part. However, sometimes the file displayed is not the one that is selected. On several occasions I have been working with a bunch of images, deleting some and renaming others only to find that I had been deleting and renaming the wrong ones. I got in a terrible mess and had to rename everything back and pull files out of the Trash and start again. I don't trust Cover Flow view enough to use it.

Another useful feature of Finder is the way you can preview files. Select a file, tap the spacebar and it is displayed in a pop-up preview window on the screen. It's great for checking images, documents, PDFs and so on without having to load up an app. Only it often doesn't work in Mavericks. The preview window opens and is blank. It sometimes takes four or five attempts to preview a file. Select a group of files, tap space to preview them and there are forward and back buttons. Only some of the files don't display. You have to go back and forth several times before it appears.

Minimise an application and it disappears into the Dock icon. Click the Dock icon and it should be restored and be displayed on the screen. I was working with iMovie the other day and couldn't get it back on the screen when minimised. I had to long click on the Dock icon until the menu appeared and then select the window.

As you can see from the screen shot, it is Mavis' birthday tomorrow, but do I really need to be told eight times? This happened when I booted up and the notifications system seemed to have gone crazy for a minute.

Mavericks is also slow at times and starting up is particularly slow. It seems to take ages to get going in a morning and I have to switch on and go and make a cup of coffee while it sorts itself out, or sit staring at the screen for five minutes until it is finished. Sometimes things take a few seconds to respond too. Perhaps you are thinking I have old hardware, but it's a one year old MacBook Pro and I've still not finished the payments on it. It's not the latest, but it's not exactly old or under powered either.

I have two partitions on my Mac and I keep Lion on one and the other is running Mavericks, upgraded from Mountain Lion. Hold down the Option key just after switching on and there is a choice of which OS to start. Lion, despite being older and having more software installed, starts quicker, uses less memory and is more responsive. That's why I choose to use Lion most of the time and I only use Mavericks when I have to.

Although there are more features in Mavericks, most of the time they aren't ones I care about or need. When I need to get work done quickly, it is best to boot up Lion.

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iPad got fat and heavy till the Air came along

It is interesting reading the reviews of the latest iPad Air and a lot of people have commented on how thin and light it is. Apple gave it the Air name because it is as light as air. OK, not really, but it is lighter than before. One reviewer remarked that it was like a completely new tablet. The reason for their reaction is because the iPad had become fat and heavy.

Being fatter and heavier isn't a selling point, so at the launch of the iPad 3 and 4 Apple kept quiet about this and never mentioned it.

iPad 1 = 680g / 13.4mm thick
iPad 2 = 601g / 8.8mm thick
iPad 3 = 652g / 9.4mm thick
iPad 4 = 652g / 9.4mm thick

iPad 5 = 469g / 7.5mm thick

Notice how the weight and thickness dropped significantly with the iPad 2, despite it having a much better specification than the previous model. With the iPad 3 and 4 the weight rose and it got thicker, making it more awkward to hold - one-handed anyway. The performance may have been better, but you paid for it by being fat and heavy.

I didn't buy an iPad 1 because I wasn't that impressed. The iPad 2 is much better and that's when I bought one. It was a good tablet. I say 'was' rather than 'is' because it is beginning to show signs of age. Apple continues to sell it even though it's a two and a half year old spec because it's OK for most apps if you don't mind the low resolution screen. 

I have just upgraded from an iPad 2 and the difference in thickness and weight is much less noticeable. It is slightly lighter and slightly thinner, which is welcome, but it isn't hugely different. The most noticeable change is the sharpness of small text. It is much better than the old iPad 2's screen. I've not played any games on it yet, but there should be a noticeable improvement in performance.

What will the iPad 6 be like? It is hard to imagine it being any thinner or lighter. If it is, then the difference will be tiny. It's easy to make something fat and heavy thinner and lighter, but when something is already thin and light it's hard to make it even more so. I think the iPad 5 is one I'll be keeping for a long time. The iPad 2 and 5 look like the best of the range so far. Pick your models wisely and don't just buy every one that comes out.

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Should you buy an iPad Air or mini Retina?

The iPad Air goes on sale tomorrow and no doubt there will be huge queues outside of Apple stores across the country and even across the world. Or will there? The queues could be smaller this time around because Apple is launching the two new iPads - the Air and the mini Retina - on different dates.

Some people will want the iPad Air, but others will choose to wait for the iPad mini Retina. This will reduce the queues and it will mean that stores are less likely to run out of the model you want compared to previous years where there was just one new iPad.

So which iPad should you buy? If you check the specifications on the Apple site, there is only one difference between the two new models. Screen size. Same processor, memory, iOS, apps, Wi-Fi, and so on. Even the screen resolution is the same. There isn't anything you can do on an Air that can't be done on an mini Retina and the performance should be identical.

The choice is therefore between a 7.9in or a 9.7in screen.

As an iPad 2 owner, I had already decided that it was about time I upgraded. Although the iPad 2 still runs every app I've tried on it, it is sometimes slow and it struggles with apps that push it to the limit, like games. Also, I can't prise it out of the hands of the rest of the family, so I rarely use it myself and spend more time on cheap 7in Android tablets. A second iPad would be useful.

The iPad mini Retina would save money and be just as good as an Air, but one thing puts me off and that's the small text that many apps use. What is fine on the the full size iPad's 9.7in screen could well be difficult or even impossible for me to read on a mini's 7.9in screen. Because the screen resolution is the same on both iPads, I suspect that developers will not take the reduced screen size into consideration. They'll simply display the app on the mini the same way they do on the full size iPad and this means that everything, including text, will be 20% smaller. Will it be readable?

The size of text on the screen is a continuing irritation for me and I recently had an iPhone app that had text so small I couldn't read it. I had to install the app on an iPad to read the instructions, menus and buttons. Once I knew what everything was I could then use the iPhone app. This shouldn't be necessary, but it is far too common.

High resolution retina displays have encouraged app developers to use ever-smaller font sizes so they can squeeze more on to the limited screen space of phones and tablets, but this reduces usability and can even make it impossible to some people to use them. I have actually deleted apps after using them for just five minutes because the text was so small it made my eyes hurt with the strain of reading it. Retina displays have a downside.

As you get older, your eyes get worse, but it would be wrong to assume that this is just an age thing. Of course, your granny will have trouble with small text on a tablet or smartphone, but just look around you at the number of ordinary people of all ages that wear glasses. Many people, including young people, don't have perfect vision and they struggle with tiny text. I wish developers would stop using such small text and test their apps with real people with all their faults and not just a few elite teenagers with eyes like a hawk.

For me the choice between the two tablets is between comfortable reading or headache-inducing eye strain. I guess I'll have to fork out the extra cash for the bigger model even though I'd like the smaller one. At least I'll get my hands on it sooner rather than later.

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Find free images on Google

If you are looking for a photo for your ebook, blog, Facebook page or website, there are countless images available the web and a Google image search will produce hundreds to choose from, no matter how obscure the subject.

The problem is that a lot of the images are copyright and it is not legal to take them and use them in your own works. You could get in trouble if you copied someone else’s photo from the web and used it without their permission. Here is a useful tip to find legal images that you can use in any way you like.

Go to the Google home page and down at the bottom of the browser is a Settings link. Click it and then select Advanced search in the menu that is displayed. On the advanced search page, enter the subject or object you want to find in the boxes at the top. Suppose, for example, you wanted to find some free images of elephants, you would enter 'elephants' in the top box.

Now scroll down to the bottom of the advanced search page and  next to Usage rights, select one of the free-to-use licenses, such as Free to use or share, even commercially. Now click the Advanced search button.

This performs a standard web search, but then you can select Images to see image results. All the images are free to use, as per the license you searched for. However, you should always read the details on the website it comes from because sometimes you have to credit the photographer.

Click Search Tools at the top of the page and there is a menu to filter the images by license, which saves you having to go back to the advanced search page and start again.

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How to use Windows 8 search to find stuff

The biggest change in Windows 8, and one that continues in the upcoming 8.1, is the Start screen. Instead of having a menu that lists all your applications, there is a Start screen that contains tiles for a few key items.

One of the problems with the Start screen is that is just doesn't show everything. A typical example is Task Scheduler. It is on the Start menu in Windows 7 and you just go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Task Scheduler.

Task Scheduler is not on the Windows 8 Start screen. No problem, just search for it. You can simply start typing on the Start screen to bring up the search screen to find stuff. However, if you type 'task scheduler' then Windows 8 search says that there is no such program.

There are no apps and no settings. Has Task Scheduler been taken out of Windows 8? No it hasn't and you just have to type in 'schedule tasks' instead.

This time there is one item in Settings and selecting this shows an item called Schedule Tasks on the left side of the screen. Click that and it runs Task Scheduler.

This is really odd behaviour and it can be confusing when looking for certain programs and tools that you may have used with earlier versions of Windows. It is unclear why a search for 'Task Scheduler' does not list Task Scheduler, but Windows 8.1 is no better. In fact, it is worse because it lists lots of Bing search results, like weblinks to sites like Wikipedia and others instead of the program you actually want.

Searching for Disk Cleanup (which is now called Disk Clean-up in Windows 8), is slightly better and search returns a result called 'Free up disk space by deleting unnecessary files'. Clicking it runs Disk Clean-up.

It seems that you cannot use Windows 8 search to find applications you know the name of. Instead, you must search for the action you want to perform. So to find Task Scheduler you don't enter its name, you enter 'schedule tasks' and to get Disk Clean-up you enter 'free up disk space'.

So if you can't find something in Windows 8, try typing what you want to do, rather than what something is actually called.

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Clear Windows 8 tiles of personal information

The most noticeable feature of Windows 8 is, of course, the Start screen. It has a collection of tiles that are used to start programs instead of the menu system that was used before.

Some of the tiles are live and this means that they can show live information, such as the weather, news and so on.

They can also show various sorts of personal information like emails, messages, photos, calendar appointments and so on.

If you are in a public place like a train or coffee shop with a laptop you might not want everyone around you seeing your live tiles if they happen to glance your way. Fortunately, there is a way to clear the live information off the tiles on the Start screen.

Move the mouse up into the top right corner of the screen to show the Charms bar on the right and then click Settings, Tiles. There is a button to clear your personal information from the tiles. It wipes them clean, but it is not a permanent change and after a while notifications will begin appear in them again. It’s still useful though.

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Discover what can access your Google account and block it

There are many websites and services that require you to sign in before you are allowed to access them. To make the task easier they often provide a Facebook, Google or Twitter login option. Click the button and you provide access to your account.

Apps on mobile phones and tablets work in the same way and they often require you to log in with a Google, Facebook or Twitter account. Let the app access your account and you can then use the the app's features and functions. Your account becomes part of your profile or identity for the app.

Some of these apps, sites and services that work with Google, Facebook and Twitter are very useful and you can link the calendar app on your phone, such as an iPhone, with Google Calendar, there are extensions for Chrome and Firefox that do clever things with Google Mail, there are apps and sites that combine and sync your contacts across all your social networking services.

I don't worry who or what has access to my Facebook and Twitter accounts because I don't put anything on there that I wouldn't want made public. (Facebook is designed for sharing stuff.) Google is a different matter because it handles email, calendars, book, movie, music and app purchases, and so on. Where email and money is involved, I worry about security.

Do you know who or what has access to your Google account? There are probably phone and tablet apps, browser extensions, websites and services that you once used, or perhaps tried for a short time because they were free and then abandoned. They still have access to your account and this is worrying.

You should regularly check who and what can access your Google account and revoke permission for anything that shouldn't have it. It is important to keep on top of your Google account security.

Go to accounts.google.com in a browser and click the Security link on the left. Scroll down a little and next to Connected applications and sites, click Review permissions. A list of sites, apps and services is listed and you may be surprised at the number that have access to your Google account.

Of course, there are a lot of Google services in there, such as Google apps you have installed on your tablet or phone. They are fine and it is the non-Google items that you should focus on. Look for any item you don't use, such as mobile apps you tried, but uninstalled, sites and services you signed up for and no longer use, and so on.

Click the Revoke Access button next to any item you don't currently use. This won't stop you from using the item in the future and all that would happen if you tried to use it again is that it would ask permission to access your account.

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How not to lose your email account

I heard about someone recently who was about to lose their email account and it is an interesting story. They had been with an ISP and had used the ISP's email service. A while back they switched to a different ISP, seeking a better deal. Now the original ISP is shutting down the person's email account because they no longer have broadband with them. The problem is that they rely on their email account and don't want to lose it.

This situation will always arise if you use an ISP's email service and if you aren't a paying customer of their broadband service, they have no obligation to provide you with a free email service. What can you do if you want to switch ISPs?

One solution is to sign up for an email service that is not associated with an ISP. Google Mail, Outlook.com and Yahoo! are three obvious examples, although there are many good services from smaller players. You can switch your ISP as often as you want and your web mail service will always be accessible.

A problem though, is that switching from one email service to another is not easy. One way you could ease the switch is to use a program like Microsoft Outlook, Windows Live Mail or Thunderbird. Configure any of these with your email account and they will download everything in your inbox and store it on the computer's disk drive. When your ISP email account is shut down, you will still have all your old emails and you can refer to them, get contact details to put into your new web mail and so on.

Another way to ease the switch is to add the old email account to the new web mail service. Gmail, Outlook.com and Yahoo! Mail all allow you to add other email accounts. In Gmail for example, go to the gear button, Settings, then the Accounts tab. There is a section called Check email from other accounts (using POP3). Click the link and add the account details of your old email account. Gmail will check it every hour or so and copy any incoming email. It means that people who don't know you have moved can still email you on the old account, but you can use the new web mail account to email people (and tell them you have moved).

If you are using your ISP's email right now, you should sign up for web mail and start making the switch. If you don't like web mail, Yahoo!, Gmail and Outlook.com can al be accessed by email software running on your PC too.

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Turn your tablet into a phone and make calls

There is an obvious similarity between tablets and mobile phones. After all, they both use the same operating system and the iPhone and iPad use iOS and Android is used on phones and tablets too. Some tablets are even available with 3G connectivity and can use the mobile phone network.

There are also 'phablets', which are devices that are too big to be called phones, but too small to be classed as tablets. These blur the distinction between tablets and phones.

If you have a tablet, you may have wondered whether it is possible to make phone calls with it, particularly if you have a 3G model with a SIM card. Surely there can't be that much difference between a 3G tablet and a phone with 3G?

Actually, there is a difference and 3G is provided as an option on tablets so that you can access the internet if you find yourself somewhere that doesn't have Wi-Fi. It means, for example, that you can watch YouTube videos, catch up with online TV and browse the web standing at the bus stop, or at some place that doesn't have Wi-Fi when you are out with your device.

However, the 3G capabilities that are provided with tablets is a data-only connection and it isn't designed for voice calls. The bottom line is that you just can't place voice calls. You need more than just a 3G connection.

This does not mean that there isn't a solution and if you want to make phone calls, but without using a phone, you should use Skype. This free app from the Google Play Store or Apple iOS Store that enables you to call other Skype users for free using voice and video.

It is an example of VoIP (Voice over IP) and the internet is used for communications rather than the telephone network. There are other VoIP apps for Android and iOS, but Skype is the best known and most widely used. Search for VoIP in the Android or iOS store to find alternatives.

You can call any other Skype user for free, but this isn't its only function and you can buy credit for it that enables you to call ordinary landlines and mobile phones. Your tablet uses the internet through Wi-Fi or 3G, whichever is available, but Skype can then route the call to a real telephone. This means that you can actually use your tablet as a phone.

There are other services available from Skype and you can have a telephone number so that people can call you on their mobile phones or landlines. You can even send SMS text messages to mobiles. Browse the Skype website and you’ll find a large range of services that can make your tablet as good as a phone.

The bottom line is that you can't turn a tablet with 3G into a phone, but you can use VoIP apps to place calls to other VoIP users with the same app. You can even make calls to regular phones too.

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Do you need a 64-bit phone?

Someone once said that whenever a question is posed in a headline, the answer is always no. This isn't always true and the situation with 64-bit processors in mobile phones is actually more complicated than a simple no, or yes for that matter. There is no doubt that one day you will need a 64-bit processor in your smartphone, but not today.

The question of whether you need a 64-bit processor has only just arisen because of Apple's launch of the iPhone 5S, which sports a new A7 processor with 64-bit architecture. It runs a 6-bit OS, has 64-bit drivers and so on. But what difference does it make and is 64-bits twice as good as 32-bits?

PCs and Apple Macs, Windows and OS X - everything is 64-bit these days and the reason is that there are limits on the amount of memory that processors can access. A 16-bit processor can access 2^16 memory locations, a 32-bit processor can access 2^32 memory locations and a 64-bit processor can access 2^64 (that's 2 multiplied by itself 64 times - 2x2x2x2x...).

Let's put this in terms that are easy to understand. A 32-bit processor can access a maximum of 4Gb of memory. That is why desktop and laptop computers and the operating systems they run are all 64-bit these days. If they weren't we would never be able to use more than 4GB of memory. (In practice even 4GB isn't accessible by some memory locations are reserved for system use.)

If you want to put 8GB of RAM in your PC or Mac, that's fine now, but a few years ago it wasn't possible. I have 4GB in the Mac I'm using right now, but it sometimes struggles and it could really do with more. The reason is that apps and operating systems grow in size as more features are added.

Mobile phones and tablets are not yet struggling for memory in the same way. Budget models only have 1GB of memory, premium models have 2GB, and 3GB of RAM in a phone or tablet is rare. There is still room for apps and mobile operating systems to grow and right now a 32-bit processor can address all the memory they need.

As apps and mobile operating systems grow there will come a day when 4GB just isn't enough and then we will need a 64-bit processor so that phones can have 6GB, 8GB or more of RAM. That day is a long way off though.

In addition to providing access to more memory, a 64-bit processor can access data in 64-bit chunks. If it needs to access a lot of data it can do so more efficiently and this means that some apps will run faster, but they do have to be designed for 64-bit processing. Accessing small amounts of data can be slower because it's less than the optimum 64-bit chunk. Apps designed for 32-bit processors, which is pretty much all of them right now, might even run more slowly on a 64-bit processor.

As far as performance goes, there will be gains and losses. Some apps will be faster, but others might be slower on a 64-bit chip. Overall though, there are usually more benefits.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that 64-bits is necessarily better than 32-bits, or getting into a "My phone is better than your phone because it's 64-bit," argument. The main advantage of the A7 in Apple's iPhone 5S is that it's fast.

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Prepare your iPhone and iPad for iOS 7

Apple's big launch event is today, 10th September, and although I don't know yet exactly what will be launched, it is safe to assume that a new iPhone and new version of iOS will be among them. Those are certainties.

Not everyone buys a new iPhone every year and that is partly because of the cost and partly because phone companies like to lock people into two-year contracts. If you are going to sign up for a two-year contract then it was best to do it last year with the launch of the iPhone 5 or next year when Apple releases the iPhone 6. There is a definite pattern to iPhone development and we see major changes every two years with a minor tweaked phone in between. This is one of the inbetween years and we can expect a few internal tweaks like a better processor, and perhaps colourful cases, but not any major changes like a 5in screen. That will come next year.

For those people not wanting to or able to change their iPhone, there is always iOS 7. If Apple sticks with tradition, this will be available within a week of the launch event. We don't know how it will be delivered and it could be a direct download to the iPhone and iPad and this has been the trend with recent iOS updates. With older versions of iOS the iPhone and iPad had to be plugged into the computer to upgrade it.

Whatever the delivery method, there are some things you can do to prepare your iPhone for an upgrade to iOS 7. The first thing you should do is go to the App Store and select Updates in the bottom right corner. It is possible that some apps may not be fully 100% compatible with iOS 7. The older the app the more likely it is to have problems, so it is essential that you grab the latest updates to everything you have installed on your iPhone.

Another potential issue is memory. Operating systems grow over time and it is likely that iOS 7 requires a bit more space than iOS 6. If you are down to your last few hundred k of free memory then you need to delete some apps. Tap Settings, General, Usage. This does two things. Firstly, it shows how much free memory there is and secondly, it lists apps by the amount of memory they are using.

If you want to download iOS 7 to your iPhone or iPad (do it on Wi-Fi and not 3G to avoid charges), you might need to have a couple of gigabytes of free memory. The exact requirements will no doubt be revealed later today (and you might already know them by the time you read this).

Look down the list of apps and delete the biggest ones to free up space. Some apps are small, yet use a lot of space, such as Vine, which seems to cache all those six second video clips you watch. You can always delete it to make space for iOS 7 and then reinstall it afterwards. Sign back in to your Vine account and it's back up and running again. This is true of other apps and you can temporarily uninstall them and re-install them afterwards.

Plug your iPhone or iPad into the computer and sync it with iTunes. This creates a backup of the current version of iOS, your apps and settings. It is very unlikely that anything will go wrong with the upgrade, but it is always wise to have a backup because it gives you the option to switch back to iOS 6 by restoring to the iPhone or iPad.

Check every day for iOS 7 if you want to be among the first to get it. Tap Settings, General, Software Update. When the iPhone and iPad is plugged into the computer, select it in iTunes and there is a button to check for operating system updates. iTunes normally only checks around once a month, so you have to manually check unless you want to wait until the next scheduled one.

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Android Cleaner keeps your device running smoothly

Unlike iOS devices, Android lets you dig deep into the internal workings of the operating system and apps. It is possible to view the apps that are running, the amount of memory they are using, the cached data and so on. Android Cleaner is a free app that lets you view the storage and cache used by apps, to erase caches, remove apps, discover adware and more. A cleaner running Android device will use less battery, will run faster, and have fewer problems.

There are four buttons at the bottom of the screen and the first, Usage, provides an overview of the system. It shows the CPU usage, total memory for apps and the amount that is free, The total disk memory (there are no disks, but the storage works like a disk), and the amount free, the battery level and temperature. There is a button at the bottom of this  screen to get detailed hardware information like the CPU model, number of CPU cores, maximum clock speed, display resolution, and more. There is a lot of useful Wi-Fi information like the Wi-Fi connection speed, the IP address, the MAC address and so on.

 

The Cache button lists all the apps and the amount of memory they are using as a cache (recently accessed and temporarily stored data). The app list is sorted by cache size with the biggest at the top. Tapping an app displays the App info screen from Android Settings and this enables you to clear the cache if you want to free up memory. There is a Clean All button that clears every app's cache so you don't need to do them individually.

The Memory button lists the apps that are running, sorted by the amount of memory they are using. System services should be left alone of course, but others apps can be stopped to free up the memory they are using. Long pressing on an app gives you the option to add it to a white list and the app will ignore it and remove it from the list. This is useful for removing system services that shouldn't be stopped.

The Adware button is interesting and it displays apps that contain adverts and the number of ads they have. Tapping an app displays a screen that shows which ad networks it uses and suspicious privileges. For example, it shows whether an app can reveal the geographic location of the phone or tablet, whether it can access accounts, the internet, info on running apps and so on. A lot of free apps contain advertising and it is difficult to avoid mobile advertising. You could uninstall the worst offenders or upgrade them to paid versions that remove the ads.

There are lots of clean-up and optimise apps, but Android Cleaner is one of the more popular ones. There is a free (ad supported) Android Cleaner and Pro version that costs a little money, but has extra features, like the ability to detect over 60 ad networks. It does its job well, so give it a try.

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Samsung Gear smartwatch misses the mark

The Samsung GALAXY Gear smartwatch was launched on the 4th September and it is the first of the big name companies to do so. We all know that Apple and Google are also working on smartwatches, but Samsung has beaten them all to market. Is it any good? Will being the first allow Samsung to grab market share before anyone else?

It is undoubtedly an interesting product, but it is flawed. In some ways it offers too much, but in other ways it provides too little. This is an interesting gadget that a few people will like, but it is not a mass market product that everyone will buy.

The market is very limited and it is only compatible with Android 4.3 running on a Samsung phone and there simply aren't many of those. The new Galaxy Note 3 is one and presumably Samsung is working on updating the Galaxy S4, but right now the market for this smartwatch is non-existent.

Even if we consider the situation a year from now when Samsung has the Note 3 and S4 running Android 4.3, that's still not a big market. Not everyone will buy a smartwatch and only a fraction of the total people are willing to splash out on one. How many of those have a compatible Samsung device? Probably a small fraction of those. So we're talking of a fraction of a fraction. It is hard to imagine sales of more than a few tens of thousands.

The battery life is said to be 25 hours. It isn't clear whether this is 25 hours usage or whether the life can be extended by turning off the screen as you do with phones and tablets. It is possible that with heavy usage it would be even less than 25 hours. We won't know what that battery life figure means until people get their hands on it. It doesn't look good.

It isn't expensive for a watch at $299/£191, because some cost thousands. However, expensive watches are bought as jewellery, not to tell the time. What you must bear in mind though, is that the watch is tied to your Samsung phone. This means that if you were to switch to a different phone, most of the functions on the watch would stop working. Presumably it would still tell the time. It is essential that Samsung develops apps that run on any Android device because people won't want to be locked in. Apple has made a success of locking people in, but I think that's a different.

There are lots of other niggles, such as why put a camera in the watch? Does it really need it? I'm not keen on the strap, but it's the only one available. Apparently you can only install 10 apps, which would be a severe limitation if it is true. Some of the apps at launch are wierd, such as eBay and you can complete your eBay transactions on your watch. Do you really want to do this when there is a smartphone in your pocket (the smartwatch won't work if it isn't)? Do you really want to answer phone calls by talking into your watch?

Smartwatches are definitely coming, but this isn't going to change the world. Let's wait and see what Google and Apple come up with.

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Clean up and optimise Android phones and tablets

Smart phones and tablets never seem to have sufficient storage space, memory or battery life and we are always running short of one thing or another. You have to keep your eye on the usage and optimise the device to get the most out of what you have.

AVG, the company famous for its free anti virus software, has some useful Android apps and one you should take a look at is AVG Battery Saver & TuneUp. It is free in the Google Play Store. Here is it running on my Google Nexus 7:

 

The app has four modules - Task Killer, Battery Consumption, Data Usage and Storage Usage. They are pretty self explanatory and they do what you would expect. Task Killer shows the tasks, which are apps that are running. It shows how much memory each one is using and there is an icon to stop them running to free up memory.

There is also a processes tab and this shows things that are running in the background. A lot of these are simply part of Android , such as the keyboard, Google Account Manager, and so on. They are essential and you can't use the device without them. There are also processes from apps you have added and these are less important. It is possible to stop ones you don't need and so free up memory and processor time.

Battery Consumption shows the battery charge, health and temperature. You can see the time remaining for various activities such as idle, playing video. The device can be manually switched into power saving mode, which turns off all unnecessary components like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and so on and dims the screen. Power saving mode can be triggered automatically when the battery level falls below a set value. Of course, you won't be able to do as much in power saving mode, but at least the device won't completely die on you.

Data Usage shows how much data bandwidth each app has used since the device was last rebooted. This is useful for discovering which apps are using up all the bandwidth you pay for. You could avoid using them if you are near your data limit.

Storage Usage displays the apps you have installed and their sizes, sorted to show the biggest first. If you are running short of memory on your device, you could then uninstall the biggest apps.

This is a simple utility app, but it is free and it has some features most people will find useful. Check out AVG Battery Saver & TuneUp.

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Would you swap your $10000 Rolex for a $149 smart watch?

Smart watches are hitting the headlines again and there are a couple of new stories doing the rounds. Apparently Samsung is ready to launch its Galaxy Gear smart watch. It is said to have a three inch screen, which sounds too big to fit on your wrist. It also has a 10 hour battery life too, which is far to short to be useful. It would not surprise me if this news story was more fiction than fact.

Google is also in the news, having bought smart watch maker WIMM Labs. This is to boost its smart watch development efforts and it is obvious that the company is working on a device. Rumours of Apple's iWatch persist and apparently Apple will make 63 million of them over the next year.

It is always difficult to predict how new technology will change people's lives. When the mobile phone was designed, who knew how popular texting would be or the development of smartphones that enable you to stream movies to you while you are waiting at the bus stop?

Watches are different though. Although we buy watches so that we know what time it is, is this the primary function? If so, why do people buy $10,000 Rolex?

A $10,000 watch doesn't tell the time any better than a $100 watch. In fact, you can get a cheap digital watch with a 10 year battery that's accurate to a couple of seconds a year.

Watches are not just for telling the time. They are jewellery, they are a statement of fashion, status and wealth. A good watch can impress people when you meet them. People buy expensive watches so that they can stand out from the crowd and not because they want to look like everyone else.

Would you swap your $10,000 Rolex for a $149 smart watch?

Of course you wouldn't. I really don't know how this will affect sales of smart watches. At best we will only buy smart watches to wear part of the time because, well, they just aren't as smart as a Rolex.

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Clean up your Android tablet with AVG Uninstaller

AVG is well known to PC users and the company produces security software like AVG Antivirus, which is very popular indeed, particularly the free version.

The company also has a free utility for Android users and if you have a phone or a tablet you might want to head on over to the Google Play Store and grab a copy of AVG Uninstaller. It's free.

All Android phones and tablets have built in facilities for uninstalling apps of course, but which apps should you uninstall?

AVG Uninstaller makes the decision easier to make by enabling you view a list of apps in different ways. For example, you can view a list of apps sorted by usage (you need to use your phone or tablet for a week or two to build up the usage data). This will highlight the apps that you haven't used for a long time and could therefore be uninstalled. After all, if you don't use an app you aren't going to miss it.

You can also view a list of apps apps sorted by battery usage. If you are having problems with the battery draining far too quickly, you might want to uninstall those apps that use the battery the most. It will extend the life of your phone or tablet between charges.

Apps can also be viewed by data usage, which is important if you use the phone or tablet on 3G. (It's less important on Wi-Fi because it's free unless your ISP imposes a very low bandwidth limit.) Those apps that are consuming the most bandwidth should be the first to be uninstalled if you frequently exceed or get close to your bandwidth limit.

The final sorting method is by app size and this is useful if you are running short of memory on the device. It enables you to find out which apps are using the most memory and remove them.

With each of these app lists you can select one or more apps using tick boxes and then uninstall them with a tap. It is simple, but effective.

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Add, delete, rearrange home screens on Android

Android is fairly straightforward to use and most people can figure out how to use it, at least all the obvious functions. However, some things are not so obvious. For example, your phone might come with several home screens of widgets that you aren't interested in. You delete the widgets, but are then left with a blank screen. How do you delete empty home screens?

Another situation can arise where there are several screens containing widgets or icons and you wish the fourth screen was the second one because it has really useful things on it and it would save lots of swiping to get there. How do you swap the second and fourth home screens?

If your home screens are full of icons and widgets, how do you add more screens? How do you quickly browse them (other than swiping)?

These tips will work on most phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 for example, and tablets like the Google Nexus 7 and others.

Samsung Galaxy S4 and similar Android phones and tablets

On some devices, such as Samsung phones and tablets, this is very easy and you may have discovered some features yourself. For example, find a screen with an empty spot and press and hold until a menu appears. Select the Page option and a new empty home screen is added. Just add as many as you need.

You can move icons onto them by pressing and holding an icon, then dragging it to one of the thumbnail images of screens at the bottom. It is useful to group similar icons on the same screen.

Press any home screen with two fingers and pinch to display thumbnail images of all the screens as shown in the screen shot on the left.

The plus button adds a new empty screen to the collection and you can press, hold and drag empty screens you no longer want to the trash icon at the top of the screen to delete them.

Screens can be rearranged by by pressing and holding, then dragging them to a new position.

Press the Home button to return to the home screen and near the bottom, above the tray of icons, is a line of dots. Each dot represents a screen, so you can see how many there are. You can also see which screen you are on as the current dot is highlighted. A mini home icon shows the home screen - the screen that is displayed when you press the home button. It is useful to arrange screens to the left and right of the home screen, then they are just a swipe or two away, rather than have them all following the home screen.

A quick way to browse the screens is to press and hold the line of dots on the home screen. The screen is shrunk a little and displayed at the top and a number shows the screen you are on. Keep pressing and slide your finger left and right to flip between the screens. It's great for jumping between screens.

Google Nexus 7 and other stock Android phones and tablets

The functions described above are not part of the core Android functionality. If you have a stock Android phone or tablet, such as a Google Nexus 7, the techniques above won't work. It is a limitation of Google's OS and it isn't clear why the company hasn't added a simple home screen manager. It wouldn't be hard, so come on Google!

The only solution for users of stock Android devices at the moment is to add a launcher. Many phones come with launchers and that's why the Samsung GS4 and others have the ability to add, delete and move home screens - it's a launcher.

There are many free launchers in the Google Play Store that can be added to stock Android devices. Two examples which are typical of this type of app are Nova Launcher and GO Launcher EX, the latter has over one million five-star ratings, which gives you an indication of how highly users regard it.

With Nova Launcher for example, tap the Nova Settings icon and then select Desktop, then tap Home Screens. Press and hold on an empty screen and then drag it to the cross icon at the top of the screen to delete it.

To rearrange the home screens, press and hold on the one to move and then drag them to the position you want. The others scoot around to make room. The plus button in the top right corner adds new screens if you need them. GO Launcher EX has similar facilities and it is just the menus that are different.

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Apple under attack again? Beware dodgy emails

Remember when Apple's Developer Center was taken offline for a week? It was around this time last month and it was because of security issues. Apparently there was a security breach or an attempted one and the whole service was shut down while Apple fixed it.

At the time I received one or more emails like this:

It's an email from Apple asking me to reset my Apple ID. I was 99.99% sure it was was fake. The main reason is that the email address is arrived on wasn't the one known to Apple. I have several email addresses and different ones are used with different companies. If an email comes on the wrong address I know its not real.

The thing is, the link in the email is real. Usually email scams point to a fake site with a dodgy URL that is obviously not the real website, but this one really does take you to an Apple website. You can usually see the URL in the status bar of your email program or web browser if you mouse over the link. But this one is fine. I checked the source code and it was fine too.

There is one slightly odd thing about the URL though, and this is a long string of letters and numbers after the URL. You can see it at the bottom of the screen shot. It's not unusual to see this in URLs and it's just encrypted information being passed to the website. However, in this case I wonder if it was designed to exploit some flaw in the way the server handled URLs though. This could have been the mechanism of the security attack on Apple's servers.

The image above isn't the one I received a month ago, but is actually from another one I received today. Is this email part of last month's attack on Apple or does this indicate a new attempt to hack into Apple? It could be that the hackers have modified their original code and are trying exploit another security flaw. Who knows? What should you do if you receive an email like this, especially if it is on the right email address and it looks genuine?

Never click links in emails.

What you should do is to go to the Apple site - iTunes, the Developer Center or wherever, and log in to your account in the usual way. Just check that everything is OK with your account. You'll see messages if something is wrong. (The same advice applies to banking, shopping, credit cards and so on.)

There are also emails going around that warn you that your iPod, iPad or iPhone will soon cease to function. It tells you to click a link in the message to enable the device to continue working. No doubt you'll need to enter your username and password. It's obviously a fake because I know people that don't have any Apple kit that have received this email. Besides, this couldn't happen anyway and Apple would never send out emails like this. Beware of scams.

Never click links in emails.

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Apple clearing stocks ready for new iPad?

Apple kit has never been the cheapest around and it is quality, but at a price. If you struggle to afford the prices Apple charges for its gadgets and computers, you should visit the Refurbished and Clearance store. This is a section of the Apple website where the company sells old stock at reduced prices. It looks like new, works like new and Apple treats it like new, so you get the same warranty and support as new kit, but at a bargain price.

What caught my eye recently was the large number of iPads in the refurb store. Take a look at the Apple US store and scroll down the page - it goes on and on and there are dozens of refurbished iPads at knockdown prices. There are almost as many in the Apple UK store too.

Why are so many iPads for sale at such reduced prices? Is it normal to have so many or is this an indication that new models are coming soon and Apple is clearing out all the old ones? It certainly makes me wonder.

So what is Apple clearing out? All models are available. including the current 4th generation tablet, but the iPad 2 and mini make up the bulk of the offers.

Does this mean that the iPad 2 is soon to be dropped? It seems likely to me for several reasons. One is that this is getting quite old now and if people want a cheap iPad they can buy the mini. It will seem even older when the iPad 5 is launched, which is a sure bet in the run up to Christmas, otherwise a whole year would go by with no new iPad as the 4th gen model was launched last year. It's not that the iPad 4 is struggling to keep up with competitors, it's still the best tablet around, but Apple needs to maintain interest and cash flow. iPad sales were down last quarter and it's a fickle market.

Another reason why the iPad 2 might be on its way out is the upcoming release of iOS 7. Will it be compatible with the 2nd gen tablet? It would be a surprise if it was and I wouldn't expect it to support such old hardware.

Talking of old hardware, some of the iPad mini's internals are 2nd generation too. For example, it runs the same processor and has the same screen resolution. I think the large number of iPad mini's in the refurb store could well mean that an upgraded model is on its way.

The dual-core A5 chip powers both the iPad mini and iPad 2. The mini desperately needs an updated CPU to cope with the latest apps. I've noticed that some apps, games in particular, can be quite slow to start up on the iPad 2, and presumably the iPad mini is the same as it has the same specs. Apple has to upgrade it soon and I mean in the next couple of months. The chip in the iPad 4, a dual-core A6X with quad core graphics is just so much better.

Check out the Apple UK Refurb Store and the Apple US Refurb Store.

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The difference between Surface, Nexus 7 and iPad

The number of stories about Microsoft's Surface are growing and most of them have a similar theme - how poorly it has performed. Why have so few people bought the Surface when clearly tablets are really hot sellers right now. Just look at iPad sales and Android tablets like the Google Nexus 7 are doing pretty good too.

It is all down to the way that Microsoft sees tablets:

 . 

On the left is the iPad mini and on the right is the Google Nexus 7. Notice that they are hand held devices that are designed to do fun stuff.

This is how Microsoft sees tablets. It is a Surface RT and both Microsoft's advertising and reviews have highlighted the keyboard. This is not a tablet!

Screen + keyboard + Windows = Laptop Computer.

Microsoft isn't competing with other tablets. It isn't even in the same market. What it is selling is an ultra-light laptop computer with a removable touch screen. Microsoft clearly sees the Surface as a computer and not a tablet and that's where it is going wrong. It's too big, it runs a desktop OS and it has a keyboard. None of which people want in a tablet.

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Protect your Kindle Fire from unauthorised purchases

Hardly a week goes by without there being a story in the news where a child has racked up a bill of £1,000 on a tablet or smartphone that has been given to them. In-app-purchases are often the cause of the bill and it is possible under some circumstances to hand a device to child after downloading an app and the password is remembered, so when the child goes to the store and buys lots of upgrades for their game, they are all simply added to the bill and there is nothing to stop them buying whatever they want.

If you have a Kindle Fire HD and you set it up with the default settings, no passwords are required to download from the app store. It basically assumes that the tablet is being used by a responsible adult. To prevent children from accessing things they shouldn't, like expensive apps and other content in the store, you need to configure the parental controls.

Even if you don't have children, you might be the unlucky victim of a burglar or pick-pocket and have the Kindle Fire HD stolen. You don't want the thief to have full access to the device and be able to purchase anything they like.

Swipe down from the top edge of the screen and tap the More button in the top right corner. Press Parental Controls and select the On setting. You will need to think up and enter a password. This prevents anyone but you from getting into Parental Controls after you have changed them.

 

There are a number of settings and several apps and features can be blocked. Everyone's different, but my preference is to unblock or turn off everything except for Password-Protect Purchases. Turn this on and the device will always ask for a password before you can buy or download anything from Amazon. That includes apps and other items, even if they are free,. Which password? The one you entered when setting up Parental Controls.

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Get OpenSignal for Android - a multi-function monitor

Have you ever been in a situation where you have a really poor mobile phone signal? Just one bar one second and nothing the next?  Have you tried to use a Wi-Fi hot spot, but you are too far away and have a poor connection? The solution is to walk in the direction of the mobile phone transmitter or Wi-Fi access point. But which direction should you walk? OpenSignal can tell you this and a whole lot more. It's a free Android app from the Google Play Store. (Search for 'opensignal').

The home screen is the Dashboard tab and there are simple and advanced views. The advanced view shows things like the IP address, MAC address, and other network details. The simple view (see the screen shot) shows a compass, voice and data quality, and the Wi-Fi network name.

The compass in the middle top part of the screen shows the direction of the nearest mobile phone tower, so if the signal is poor just head in that direction. Tap the Map button and you can see mobile phone towers and Wi-Fi hotspots on a Google map. This enables you to get closer and improve the signal.

 

Select the Test tab and you can measure the bandwidth available. I was at McDonalds when the screen shot below was taken and you can see the upload and download speed and ping (response time). Ratings are given for web, video and VOiP use. The map below shows the 3G coverage for the area around me. You can also see how good your mobile phone operator is compared to others.

 

There are too many screens to show here and there is a lot of useful information displayed by this app. For example, it monitors the mobile phone signal and records any periods where you lost the signal. This is displayed on various charts and there is a history that shows hourly and daily signal strengths.

It monitors the amount of data used and you can tell it your monthly bandwidth allowance. It can then tell you how much is left and how much you can use each day without going over. It records the minutes spent in voice calls and the number of SMS texts sent too. This is great if you need to keep an eye on your phone usage and avoid excessive charges because you have gone over the limit.

OpenSignal is an excellent utility that deserves a place on your Android phone. It's easy to use and displays useful information about phone usage and signal quality.

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Turn your Android phone into a weather machine

There are countless weather apps for Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and others, and it can be difficult deciding which one to install. WeatherSignal is a completely different type of weather app that does not compete with the others and instead it offers a unique view of the current conditions. Even if you already have a weather app, this one is different, so it is worth adding to your phone.

  

It is not really a forecasting service and it won't tell whether you will need an umbrella tomorrow when you leave home. What WeatherSignal does is to use the device's sensors to display information about the current conditions. Top end Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and others have a lot of built in sensors to measure temperature, pressure, humidity and even light and magnetic flux.You can see all the readings in the left-hand screen shot.

Tap any of the readings to switch to a live display, shown on the right for temperature. It shows the minimum, maximum and average, plus a chart for whatever time period you choose - 10 minutes, an hour, 12 hours, a day, week or month. There is a live display that shows live figures and a live sideways scrolling chart too.

Your phone is just like a tricorder from Star Trek! You can move it around and see how the magnetic flux density or light levels vary.

Swiping sideways reveals a map and other users with the app are displayed with pins. You can tap a pin to see what their readings were and when they were recorded. It's anonymous, so you don't know the user and you just see the readings like those shown above.

It is interesting to see charts showing how readings change over a week or month, or to quickly check what the current temperature is. Falling pressure is an indication of rain and other bad weather, whereas rising pressure means fine, clear weather, so you can make your own weather predictions of sorts.

WeatherSignal is interesting and it is free. Search for it in the Google Play Store.

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Microsoft slashes price of Surface RT

We all suspected that Microsoft's Surface was selling badly and now we have had confirmation. The company has slashed the price and not by a bit, but by a huge margin. Here in the UK the 32GB Surface RT was £399, but now it is just £279 (including VAT, the tax we pay on goods). Why is it not selling when tablets are so popular?

There are many reasons of course, and the price is just one factor. Selling it at the same price as the iPad when it offers less is a bad idea. The iPad is now a mature product with hundreds of thousands of fantastic apps and support from all the top software developers. The Surface has much less support and far fewer apps.

Windows 8 is a problem too. Microsoft has a vision of one operating system to rule them all, one operating system that runs on everything and everywhere - Windows. Astonishingly, the dream began as far back as 2001 when Windows XP was launched. It had tablet components built in, but tablets back then were little more than laptops with the screen folded flat. They weighed several pounds, were heavy to carry, and the touch screen was nothing like what we have today. Windows tablets were awful and never caught on.

More than a decade later Microsoft is still trying to create a Windows operating system that runs everywhere and on everything. Windows 8 achieves this and it runs both on the Surface RT tablet and desktop PCs. The problem is that it is a jack of all trades and master of none.

Windows 8 is strange on desktop PCs because it has a tablet interface which is at odds with the usual Windows desktop experience and some people don't like it. The Surface RT has problems too and it is possible to get to the traditional Windows desktop, in a limited sort of way. This is equally confusing and it is like running a desktop OS on a tablet.

What are people to expect from a tablet that runs Windows 8? It is confusing and what's more, it contains a lot of code that is unnecessary, leading to bloat that sucks the life out of the hardware. The Surface has to have 32GB of memory because the OS consumes so much whereas the iPad and Android tablets work happily with 16GB. I even have an early Nexus 7 with just 8GB of memory and it's fine.

I think Microsoft's vision of one OS is wrong. At the new lower price point I think the Surface RT will definitely generate more interest, but I doubt if it will generate sufficient to survive in the long term. It needs to sell millions to survive and I can see it quietly being scrapped after a year or two.

The Surface Pro is a different kettle of fish and it is more like an ultra light laptop with a detachable screen. It definitely has a future for people that want a tablet/laptop hybrid. Here Windows 8 makes sense and you can run desktop applications when the keyboard is attached and use it as a tablet when you pull the screen off. It is a neat idea that deserves to do well.

The Surface RT even at its new price point will continue to struggle because of cheap Android tablets and the better iPad. It is surely the beginning of the end for this device.

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How to save lots of money on software

There are many great programs for your Windows PC or Apple Mac, but unless you are a lottery winner you might find it difficult coming up with the money to buy them all. You end up you buying the essentials and the rest is put on a wish list. You wish they were cheaper and you wish you could afford them. There is a way to bring down the price to a much more affordable level and it is very easy to do.

Instead of buying software, always download and install the free trial. Most software is provided as a free download these days and you usually get 30 days use before it stops working or you have to pay for it, although some software companies are a bit mean and offer you less time.

Always register the software or the website. It is sometimes a condition of the free trial anyway, so don't worry about it. It is all part of the plan. In fact, it is an essential part of the plan. The software company needs to know your email address and that you are using the free trial.

Don't buy the software. As the end of the trial approaches you will get an email from the company with a discounted offer that saves you money. This is tempting, but if you hold out a little longer you might even get a last-chance offer at a bargain price.

Here is an example. The regular price for Ad-Aware Personal Security is $24, but instead of buying it, I downloaded the free trial.

A week or two later I got this email with an offer saving me $14 over the regular price of the software. It is now just $9.95 and all without doing anything special. Just running the free trial and registering with my email address.

This practice of emailing users of the free trial with discount offers is very common and I frequently see mail in my inbox offering fantastic deals. It means you can save a lot of money and software that seemed out of reach could well be affordable.

Go and download the free trials on your software wish list and wait for the offers to come in!

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Clean up your Gmail inbox

We get so many emails it is hard to keep track of them all. There are messages from work colleagues, customers or clients, personal emails, newsletters we have subscribed to and so on.

Some email services allow you to create folders and to move messages from the inbox and put them into the appropriate folder. This enables you to keep the inbox clear of clutter and only the important messages remain, or perhaps the odd one or two that don't fit into the categories assigned to folders.

Google Mail is different and it uses labels rather than folders to organise email messages. If you open an email though, you will find two buttons at the top, one of which says Label as and the other says Move to. If you click each one you will see that they are almost identical. Both list the labels you have created for your messages.

Should you label emails or move emails? What is the difference?

The difference is that when you assign a label, it is added to whatever labels are already attached. A message can have more than one label associated with it and you are not limited to just one. An email in the Inbox has the Inbox label assigned to it. If you added a News label then it would have both Inbox and News labels. Select either the Inbox or News in the left panel and you will see the email.

If you use the Move to menu, the new label is attached to the message and the Inbox label is removed. So if you move to News, the email will appear when News is selected on the left, but not when Inbox is selected. By using Move to rather than Label as you can clean up the inbox and remove the clutter.

Suppose you want to put an email back in the inbox. This is easy and if a label has been attached, select the label on the left and the Move to button becomes Move to Inbox.

If there are no labels assigned to a messages, where is it? In this case, select All Mail on the left. This option may be hidden and you might need to click the More link to show all the items in the left panel.

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Free birthday presents from the iOS App Store

The iOS App Store is now five years old and to celebrate Apple is giving away some great apps free of charge. If you have an iPhone or an iPad you should head on over to the App Store straight away on your device and grab these superb goodies because they probably won't be available for very long. Well not for free anyway.

There is a link on the home page to the birthday gifts and there are two categories, Apps and Games.

There is just one thing to watch out for and that is the size. Some of them are huge and Infinity Blade II for example, is 1.1GB. You generally need enough space to download an app and install it, so you will need around 2.2GB of free space on your iPhone or iPad to grab this freebie.

Barefoot World Atlas is another 1.1GB so after installing Infinity Blade II you'll need at least another 2.2GB of free space to download and install this atlas too.

If you are short of space I would recommend avoiding those two heavyweight apps and go for Tiny Wings and Where's My Water on the games side, and Over and Traktor DJ for iPhone on the serious side.

Even if you don't want to use these apps right now, you should download and install them while they are free.

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Master notifications on the Samsung Galaxy S4

One of the great features of modern smartphones is the way that information can be pushed out to them. You can be notified when there is a new email, when someone posts something on Twitter or Facebook, when someone bids on your auction and so on. Notifications are an essential tool and you need to take control of them. Notifications can be a source of irritation when left to the defaults, so here I'll show the techniques to use to filter out the ones you don't want and leave just the important ones.

I'll be using the Samsung Galaxy S4 for this, but everything here applies equally to other Android phones and tablets. The menus may be slightly different depending on the device and version of Android, but that's all.

Notifications produce a sound so that you don't miss them when the phone is in your pocket or the tablet is in a bag. Press the volume up or down key and when the volume control appears on the screen, tap the gear icon. There are several volume controls and one is labelled Notifications. Drag the slider to the desired volume.

Pull down from the top of the screen (the right side) and press the gear icon to go to Settings. In the My Device section, go to Sound. Press Default notification sound. You can choose the sound to produce when there is a notification.

Also in the Sound section is Vibration intensity. Tap it and there are sliders for Incoming call, Haptic feedback, and Notification. Drag the slider to choose whether to have the phone vibrate when there is a notification and by how much.

Go to LED indicator in the My device section of Settings. There is a Notifications section and this enables you to choose whether to flash the LED on the phone whenever you have a new notification. You don't even need to hear the phone, just look at it and if the LED is flashing you have a notification waiting.

Now go to the More section in Settings and Application manager (it may be called Apps on some devices). Tap any application you like and there is an option near the top called Show notifications. When this is ticked the app can display notifications, but not when it is clear. Note that this does not mean that an app will definitely display notifications, just that the system will allow it to if it wants to. It may be an app that doesn't produce notifications. A photo editor for example, might not need any notifications, but a social networking app would produce lots.

You should go to every app listed in Application manager and set the notifications to either on or off as you prefer. I know it is tedious when you have a lot of apps, but it is really useful to turn off notifications except for your favourite apps. Then you won't be overloaded with messages about things you don't care about or things that aren't important.

This isn't quite the end and some apps have notification settings within them. Take Facebook for example. Run it, tap the menu button on the device, and select Settings. There are lots of notification settings for messages, wall posts, comments, and so on. Tick or clear the boxes to allow or prevent them. There are also Vibrate, Phone LED and Notification ringtone settings.

Facebook is unusual in that there are extra notification settings in addition to the notification box in Settings. It is worth looking at the settings in each app to see if there are extra notification settings.

After all this configuration you'll be exhausted, but at least you can sit back and relax. You won't be disturbed by a notification unless it is an important one that you have expressly allowed.

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