With the Galaxy Note 20 launch just a week away, all eyes will be on what upgrades Samsung brings to the table. While the chipset might remain unchanged, there might be a silver lining. While Samsung flagship like the Note series and the S series are powered by Snapdragon chipsets in the US and European markets, they come with Exynos chipset in Asian markets such as India. It often tends to lose out on the performance front against Qualcomm Snapdragon counterparts. However, a new leak suggests some good news in this regard. Samsung Galaxy Note 20 release date, price, news and leaks Upcoming smartphones in India: Specs, launch date, price (Image credit: Samsung/WinFuture) According to a tweet by Anthony, a Youtuber, Samsung Galaxy Note 20 will continue to be powered by the Exynos 990 chipset, but with major improvements in terms of the performance and efficiency. These optimizations should bring it closer to the Snapdragon 865 series. He even suggested that it is almost li...
TechRadar - All the latest technology news
Intel’s first Universal Windows Driver bolsters support for auto-tuning graphics settings
Intel has released new Universal Windows Driver (UWD) graphics drivers for Windows 10 – also known as Windows Modern drivers – with some nifty features including support for a couple of new games, and further support for the automatic tuning of game settings for a number of older titles.
This is the first such driver to be delivered by Intel, and the fact that this is labelled a universal driver simply means that it works across all device types, similar to how universal apps run across all devices.
The drivers are version v25.20.100.6444, and work with Intel’s integrated graphics solutions on Windows 10 (64-bit) machines running the Fall Creators Update or newer.
Support has been added for two new games: Farming Simulator 2019 (which was unleashed last week), and Artifact, Valve’s new card game (pictured above) which puts a different spin on the genre compared to Hearthstone, and was only released yesterday.
Auto tuningThese Windows Modern graphics drivers also tweak Intel’s Graphics Control Panel which facilitates automatically tuning game settings on Skylake (6th-generation) or newer Intel processors (including the latest 8th-gen models with Radeon RX Vega M Graphics).
A new ‘rescan’ button has been added to the control panel which, as the name suggests, scans for newly installed games (without having to reboot your PC).
Plus support has been added for tuning a number of new games, namely the following:
Fallout 4Far Cry 5FIFA 18PaladinsPath of ExileThe Sims 4SMITEBorderlands 2Euro Truck Simulator 2PlayerUnknown’s BattlegroundsRocket LeagueWitcher 3The new graphics driver comes in the form of a self-installing EXE which you can grab directly from Intel here.
Note that if you install this UWD package, it isn’t backwards compatible with previous graphics drivers. In other words, if you decide you don’t like this new driver, and want to revert to a previous legacy version, you must fully uninstall the UWD driver from Windows Apps and Features, and make sure you reboot your machine, before proceeding to install the older driver.
If you don’t do this, you risk what Intel describes as “minor to major system instability”, so do bear that in mind.
Some of our best laptops run Windows 10Via MS Power User
Best 4K camera 2018: 10 top cameras to shoot movies with
2018 has already welcomed a barrage of new cameras equipped with 4K video recording, and now almost every major camera manufacturer has implemented 4K shooting somewhere in their lines.
Perhaps most impressively, the technology has been successfully stretched over models of all billings. So, whether you’ve only got a few hundred pounds or dollars to spend or you're willing to stretch to a handsome four-figure sum, it’s likely you can afford a camera with the technology on board.
Just because two cameras have 4K recording, however, doesn't mean to say they're equal. The use of different sensors and different methods of capture, together with variations in output possibilities, mean two 4K cameras can behave quite differently.
Even something as simple as whether the camera uses the full width of the sensor or applies a crop factor is vital to consider, as this has a significant effect on your effective angle of view. And all of the above is before we even consider supporting features such as headphone sockets, focus peaking, zebra patterning and Log profiles.
To make things simple, we’ve rounded up what we think are the fittest 4K cameras on the market right now, and sum up why they've made the cut.
If you want the best camera to shoot 4K videos, then this is it. Blackmagic's Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is designed for film makers through and through and is not something to consider if you're looking to shoot stills as well. Based around a Micro Four Thirds sensor and lens mount, it features a huge 5.0-inch touchscreen, it head and shoulders above other MFT shooters from a video-centric operational point of view. The range of connections on-board is also class-leading, and the fact there’s a dual card slot trumps much pricier cameras like the EOS R. That's not forgetting decent on-board audio recording capabilities and of course, the sweetener to the tune of $299 worth of software - a license for DaVinci Resolve Studio, it really is a gift that keeps on giving. Finally, and most importantly, the fundamental quality of its 4K video takes on much pricier cameras and, when you know how to work it, handles noise better than some full frame sensors too, thanks to its the dual native ISOs.
Read our in-depth Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K review
While it can shoot stills quite happily (although at a pretty limited 10.2MP resolution), this should be seen first and foremost as a video camera – if you want to do both you've got the Lumix GH5 (below) to fill that brief. While the absence of built-in image stabilization might be a disappointment for some, that issue aside the breadth of video features is incredibly impressive. If you want to shoot professional-quality footage without remortgaging your house to buy a pro video camera, you won't find a better video-focused camera right now.
Read our in-depth Panasonic Lumix GH5S review
Until the arrival of the Lumix GH5S, the GH5 was the pick of the bunch for those looking to shoot video. Quite a bit cheaper than the newer GH5S, the GH5 is a bit more versatile for those wanting to shoot both stills and video, and the video specification is still very impressive, allowing you to shoot Cinema 4K (4096 x 2160) at 60p with a bit rate of 150Mbps, while Full HD video can be captured up to 180fps. That's not all, as the GH5 offers color subsampling at 4:2:2 and a color depth of 10-bit, delivering greater color information and richer graduations. The GH5 also offers live output to external recorders such as Apple ProRes via HDMI, as well as simultaneous internal recording.
Read our in-depth Panasonic Lumix GH5 review
At the time of the A7S II's review we said it was the best video-shooting stills camera available, and while much has changed in the market we still reckon it’s a compelling option for the videographer. One of its major selling points at launch – internal recording of 4K footage – has since been matched by many others, but it’s the modest pixel count of its sensor that splits it from its rivals. We found its dynamic range to be very high, and consistently better than rivals at higher sensitivities, while noise was also shown to be lower than cameras with more populated chips. It also has the advantage of using the whole sensor width for recording video, and of being able to record to the memory card while outputting 4:2:2 footage to a HDMI recorder, but proves itself to be capable for stills shooting too. Autofocus is generally fast and built-in image stabilisation is a huge bonus, while the body is sturdier than its predecessor’s too. Overall, while it may not be the newest model, its sensor and video specs give it a handful of advantages over its rivals.
Read our in-depth Sony Alpha A7S II review
The previous APS-C-based Alpha A6300 was a big hit with enthusiast users, and the Alpha A6500 builds on its success in many ways. The camera records 6K footage that’s downsampled to 4K for the benefit of quality, and uses the efficient XAVC S codec that has a rate of 100Mbps. This is joined by Log gamma modes, 120fps HD recording (also at 100Mbps) and enhanced zebra patterning to keep an eye on exposure. You also benefit from a 425-phase-detect-point focusing system for rapid focus and a 2.36-million-dot OLED viewfinder, together with 11fps burst shooting at full resolution, all inside a dust- and moisture-resistant body. That's not to mention the welcome addition of Sony's 5-axis in-body image stabilization system. Now that the price has started to fall it would also be a fine choice as an upgrade over previous APS-C-based Sony models.
Read our in-depth Sony Alpha A6500 review
The long-awaited successor to the D810 arrived earlier this year, and Nikon certainly didn't hold back with the specs. With a fresh 45.4MP full-frame sensor, a highly advanced 153-point AF system and 7fps shooting, supported by features such as a tilting touchscreen and whole suite of connectivity options, the the D850 is the most advanced DSLR we've seen. Video-wise, there’s lots to love. The camera is capable of 4K UHD capture at 30p/25p/24p, and that's using all the sensor - no unwanted cropping here, allowing you to take full advantage of your lenses. Other video features include ports for both microphone and headphone sockets, as well as a Flat Picture Profile, zebra patterning and Power Aperture Control. You can also record at 120fps in Full HD quality. A brilliant DSLR that's great at shooting video too.
Read our in-depth Nikon D850 review
“The best Micro Four Thirds camera yet” was what we concluded from our time testing the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, and video is one area where Olympus has made significant improvements over previous models. Not only do you get 4K capture in both DCI and UHD flavours, you also get clean output over HDMI at 4:2:2, a headphone port for audio monitoring and the benefits of Olympus’s fast Hybrid AF system, which works in conjunction with the touchscreen for even easier subject selection. Whether you’re shooting stills or videos, you also get one of the most effective image stabilisation systems we’ve yet seen, which will please those who expect to be largely using the camera handheld. Other reasons why the camera walked away with a full five stars include its excellent weather-sealing, lifelike EVF, and the capability to fire at 18fps with continuous AF and AE tracking. Those who want to easily achieve a very shallow depth of field may not prefer the smaller Micro Four Thirds sensor over larger-sensor offerings, but with the right lens and technique you can still isolate subjects from their surroundings on such a camera without bother. In any case, while Panasonic may have had a head start with video, the OM-D E-M1 Mark II certainly sets the bar high for a flagship Micro Four Thirds camera.
Read our in-depth Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II review
Fujifilm made a lot of effort to revamp many aspects of the X-T2’s spec sheet to craft the X-T3, and improvements in video recording were more significant than is usually the case for such a model. The key changes include the option to capture 10-bit video at 4:2:0 internally, together with a far denser phase-detect AF array that makes for more refined subject tracking. There’s also a forthcoming Hybrid Log Gamma option, on top of the F-Log setting that can be used for internally captured footage provided as standard. The camera also has the bonus of applying no crop when shooting 4K footage at 30p, and only a minor 1.18x crop when boosted to 60p shooting, in either DCI 4K or UHD 4K modes, while both mic and headphone sockets are also now both incorporated into the body too. In our review we found the camera to deliver detailed and natural footage, whether you’re capturing conventionally or using one of the slow-motion options, and this is on top of a stellar performance elsewhere, with great autofocus, lovely image quality from the new sensor and speedy response throughout operation. Another smasher from Fujifilm.
Read our in-depth Fujifilm X-T3 review
Nikon’s joint first full-frame mirrorless camera is its most serious assault on the video market to date. While the D850 remains an excellent choice for DSLR users looking to capture video alongside their images, the Z7 has a handful of significant advantages for the videographer. Perhaps most crucially, the presence of both sensor-based and electronic VR mean that the camera does great job to keep things stable, whatever the lens you're using, while 435 sensor-based phase-detect AF points that are available during video recording do very well to keep everything focused and transitions nice and smooth. The 10bit N-Log shooting option, which is also absent from the D850, gives you a better starting point for grading footage, and it's great to see 4K footage being recorded using the full width of the sensor too. We’d like to have seen a 4K60p option, and a little rolling shutter remains, but we were otherwise very impressed by the way Nikon has launched it's new system.
Read our in-depth Nikon Z7 review
If you're looking for a powerful all-in-one camera, then you're not going to go far wrong with Sony's brilliant RX10 IV. With a long and fast 24-600mm f/2.4-4 zoom lens partnered with a stacked 1-inch type 20.2MP sensor and fast 315-point phase-detect AF system, it's an incredibly versatile camera. It doesn't disappoint when it comes to video either, with 4K UHD footage captured with 1.7x more information than actually required without any pixel binning, before being downsampled to 4K for the sake of quality. This happens at a 100Mbps maximum bit rate, and you can boost the camera up to 960fps for slow-motion footage too. All of this is supported by a clean HDMI output, zebra patterning and both microphone and headphone ports. You also get an S-Log2 gamma profile in addition to the Picture Profiles (which you can adjust), and Sony’s Gamma Display Assist mode to help you get a better idea of what graded footage would look like. It’s not cheap, but there's nothing quite like it.
Read our in-depth Sony Cyber-shot RX10 IV review
Sophisticated malware could target your smart home in 2019
Malware will become far more sophisticated in 2019, with cybercriminals using AI to drive attacks, according to McAfee’s latest threat predictions for the coming year, which also underline the dangers likely to be posed to the smart home.
McAfee believes that new strains of malware will be equipped with increasingly sophisticated evasion techniques. So, for example, we will see cryptocurrency mining malware with built-in measures to prevent detection.
The security firm notes that the WaterMiner malware is capable of stopping its mining process whenever the victim runs an antivirus scan, or indeed opens up the Task Manager to try and see if any running processes are consuming a lot of CPU usage – effectively hiding itself. Botnets will also use cleverer obfuscation techniques.
And not only will cybercriminals be better able to deal with AI-powered anti-malware measures, but they will begin to employ AI themselves. McAfee notes: “We expect evasion techniques to begin leveraging artificial intelligence to automate target selection, or to check infected environments before deploying later stages and avoiding detection.”
Malware using AI to such ends will soon be found in the wild, according to the security company.
As for the smart home, the often wobbly security associated with the many internet-connected gadgets therein is always a worry, and McAfee believes that these will be a focus for attacks in 2019.
More specifically, McAfee thinks cybercriminals will target two main vectors to compromise smart home security: smartphones/tablets, and routers.
More than Mirai…We’ve already seen the security problems that many routers suffer from – just witness the havoc the Mirai botnet caused when it popped up a couple years ago, compromising routers and other IoT devices – but McAfee is now stressing the threat from smartphones.
The company wrote: “Malware authors will take advantage of phones and tablets, those already trusted controllers, to try to take over IoT devices by password cracking and exploiting vulnerabilities.
“These attacks will not appear suspicious because the network traffic comes from a trusted device. The success rate of attacks will increase, and the attack routes will be difficult to identify.”
Vulnerabilities in smartphone apps and cloud services are also likely to be weak points, as cybercriminals attempt to build up botnets capable of launching the likes of huge DDoS attacks (as seen with Mirai).
And these DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks could potentially be accompanied with demands for ransoms and the threat of “destruction of property” in some cases. Or at least serious messing with the IoT gadgets in your house…
“These attacks will not appear suspicious because the network traffic comes from a trusted device. The success rate of attacks will increase, and the attack routes will be difficult to identify.”
McAfee Threat PredictionsThreats to your property certainly sounds extreme, but as McAfee notes, digital assistants are another element of the smart home under threat from exploitation. The danger here is more sophisticated IoT malware will find its way onto your network and be able to exploit voice-controlled assistants, with eventual scenarios envisaged such as cybercriminals opening your smart locks and doors.
As McAfee puts it: “Soon we may hear infected IoT devices themselves exclaiming: ‘Assistant! Open the back door!’”
The firm has some advice for helping to secure your smart home, and that includes making sure you use some form of security software on your smartphone.
It’s also a good idea to keep your IoT gadgets on a separate network away from your main home network which hooks up all your PCs, tablets and phones. You can create a guest network to this end, which is something we discuss in our article on six ways to secure your home Wi-Fi.
Also do make sure that any routers or IoT devices you own don’t use the factory default username and password.
We’ve picked out the best antivirus software
These PS4 and PS4 Pro deals are even cheaper than Black Friday - but hurry, they end today
Black Friday and Cyber Monday let us down a bit to be honest. Sure the PS4 deals were cheaper than they've been in recent months especially after a fairly miserly summer from the retailers. But we were far from blown away.
But out of nowhere, there's a new 15% off coupon you can use on a huge range of brand new items at eBay from a range of reliable retailers on their eBay outlets. And it's all possible thanks to the eBay voucher code 'PRESENTS' which you can use at the checkout - there's a minimum spend of £20 and a maximum discount of £50.
So we've been able to take some serious weight off a multitude of gaming offers. We've already shown you how to use it on cheap Xbox One deals and Nintendo Switch deals but you'll find our PS4 deal highlights below on the PS4 Slim, PS4 Pro and DualShock 4 controllers. We've added a broader range of categories below where you can also use the voucher at checkout. Don't forget though, this code expires at 23:59 tonight - if stock lasts that long that is!
Jump to eBay to use the 15% off voucher 'PRESENTS' PS4 deals Fancy looking at some other colours? Be sure to check in on our cheap PS4 controller deals page. Shop by category at eBay for 15% off with 'PRESENTS'FurnitureVideo Game ConsoleLaptopsVideo GamesVirtual RealityComputer components and partsSmart watchesToys and gamesMore deal categoriesAnd you might be tempted to check out the remaining Cyber Monday deals that are still going. Want more options, then check out our roundups of the best Nintendo Switch deals and PS4 deals.
BBC launches new interactive drama for Amazon Alexa smart speakers
BBC R&D has launched a new interactive radio drama for Amazon Alexa that's different for everyone who hears it.
The Unfortunates is adapted from a BBC Radio 3 play starring Martin Freeman, which was based on an experimental 'book in a box' novel by BS Johnson. The story contained 27 unbound sections, with only the start and end points specified; the rest could be read in any order.
The story, which was originally released in 1969, follows a sports journalist whose memories of a friend are triggered when he is sent to report on a football match, and according to the author, the format is intended to convey "the mind's randomness".
The new radio drama is split into 17 sections, which are shuffled with each listen. As with Johnson's book, only the first and last chapters are fixed in place.
Degrees of interactionLast year, BBC R&D released its first interactive audio drama for smart speakers: sci-fi story The Inspection Chamber. The production cast the listener in an active role, speaking with other characters as the story progressed.
"[We] found a perfect example of a story we could bring to smart speakers, creating something which would sound and interact like a traditional radio programme but also take advantage of new technology"
Henry Cooke, BBC R&DAfterwards, senior producer and creative technologist Henry Cooke carried out a detailed survey to find out how listeners felt about such productions, and discovered that people fell into two distinct groups.
One set of listeners wanted more interaction, creating an experience more like a game, while the other preferred not to interact with a story once it was in motion. However, even among the latter group, people were interested in a story that could change in interesting ways; they just didn't want to be interacting with it constantly.
While considering that split, Cooke had a conversation with his colleague Tom Armitage, who mentioned Radio 3's adaptation of Johnson's book.
"We dug into it a little more, and found a perfect example of a story we could bring to smart speakers, creating something which would sound and interact like a traditional radio programme but also take advantage of new technology," says Cooke.
Restoring randomnessThe order for the radio adaptation was picked live on a special edition of radio programme The Verb, but after that it was frozen, losing the randomness of the printed version.
"Near the beginning of this year, I collaborated on a quick prototype with BBC R&D alumnus Tom Howe, chopping up the Radio 3 broadcast back up into its parts and building a player for Alexa which shuffled those parts into a new order – essentially, a randomized playlist," says Cooke.
"We then took that version to a meeting with the Radio 3 creative team – producer Mary Peate and writer Graham White – who had no idea what we’d been up to!
"Luckily, they loved what we’d done to their show, and were very supportive of our new version. This meant that the hard work of building out our prototype into a full skill could begin."
Cooke has described the full process of adapting the drama for smart speakers on the BBC R&D blog, including how the team overcame challenges like managing she sheer number of audio assets, controlling the flow of conversation, and creating artwork for Amazon Echo devices with screens (like the Echo Show).
The interactive version of The Unfortunates is free to download. To listen, ask your Alexa device to enable The Unfortunates, find it in the Alexa Skill Store, or get it from the BBC Taster website.
The best smart speakers 2018
Vodafone launches new VeryMe reward scheme with selected phone deals
It seems Vodafone is jumping on the reward scheme bandwagon, having launched its 'VeryMe' scheme for mobile phone customers to get free gifts and discounts.
VeryMe's first offer includes discounts on Odeon cinema tickets (two for £7), free Costa coffee and treats from Millie's Cookies, Hotel Chocolat and Tesco. There are also free trials on apps and a whole load of other rewards - and not to mention you get a free extra 2GB of data when you sign up.
Vodafone's UK Chief Executive Nick Jeffery, said: “VeryMe Rewards is designed as a personalised thank you to our customers for their loyalty. The Vodafone App is quick and easy to use and rewards customers with daily treats and offers that have been individually tailored to them.”
Vodafone isn't the first mobile phone provider to do this. O2 has its Priority Reward scheme and Three has its interestingly named 'Wuntu' app to give customers deals alongside their contract. Where Vodafone seems to differ is that the app will tailor the offers to you so you're only ever getting deals that you're interested in.
If you are already with the provider you can get started by downloading the Vodafone App and clicking through to the VeryMe section and over time the app will figure out what you like and tailor its suggestions to your liking.
If the idea of VeryMe has caught your interest but you're not yet on Vodafone, check out our best Vodafone deals page to try and find a contract that works for you.
These mega cheap Nintendo Switch deals expire today – unless they sell out first
It can be a bit of a nightmare chasing Nintendo Switch deals around Black Friday, as the deals come in thick and fast while the best ones selling out early on. But there's no need to worry if you didn't find one over the weekend or on Cyber Monday, as we've found some super cheap deals on brand new consoles from reputable stores on eBay.
Actually, the prices are even better than we saw at the weekend, but you'll have to be quick as the coupon code that produces the magic prices expires at 23:59 tonight.
The promotional eBay voucher code knocks 15% off a huge range of items, with a minimum spend of £20 and a maximum discount of £50. We've been able to do some proper damage to Nintendo Switch prices on the highlighted deals below. We've included a longer list of other applicable categories you may want to use the voucher on elsewhere around eBay too at the bottom of this page. Not after a Switch? We've found some cracking discounts on PS4 prices and Xbox One bundles too.
Nintendo Switch deals Shop by category at eBay for 15% off with 'PRESENTS'FurnitureVideo Game ConsoleLaptopsVideo GamesVirtual RealityComputer components and partsSmart watchesToys and gamesMore deal categoriesAnd you might be tempted to check out the remaining Cyber Monday deals that are still going. Want more options, then check out our roundups of the other best Nintendo Switch deals and PS4 deals.
Asus partners with Quantumcloud to let your idle graphics card mine cryptocurrency
Asus has announced it is teaming up with Quantumcloud to allow owners of its graphics card to mine cryptocurrencies and get digital payouts via PayPal or WeChat.
The partnership means that Asus graphics card owners can use the Quantumcloud software to manage their digital wallet, set up cryptocurrency mining and perform conversions and transfers automatically, taking a lot of the complexity out of cryptocurrency mining.
It also means that while your graphics card is idle – basically when it’s not being used by games or graphic-intensive tasks – it can be used to mine cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, so you can earn money while your PC is on.
Mining made simpleCryptocurrency mining, where people use their graphics cards to ‘mine’ digital currencies, can seem too good to be true, and many people have been put off mining due to its complexity. Asus’s partnership with Quantumcloud could change that.
It’s also more secure, as according to Asus, the customer data is protected under GDPR regulations to keep your personal and financial information private and secure, something that some other mining apps do not offer.
Asus says that owners of its graphics cards “can potentially earn a passive income by installing Quantumcloud’s software.”
You’re probably not going to make a huge amount, so don’t quit your day job just yet, but it could prove a nice little income to buy the odd bit of DLC. If you fancy making a bit of cash on the side, and have an Asus graphics card, then this is worth looking into.
Best mining GPU 2018 : the best graphics cards for mining Bitcoin, Ethereum and more
Asus' gaming-centric ROG Phone and its accessories launched in India
Asus has officially unveiled its new gaming-focused smartphone bearing the ROG brand (which we first saw at Computex 2018). The handset competes with the Razer Phone, but Razer has not shared any plans of bringing their gaming phone to the country yet. So the ROG Phone is the only true-gaming device available in India.
The ROG Phone is touted as the first smartphone in the world to feature a 3D vapor-chamber cooling system, designed to keep the thermals under control while running demanding games.
The hardware consists of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 octa-core chip with the clock speed pushed up to 2.96GHz (as opposed to the normal 2.8GHz), and the integrated Adreno 630 GPU is specially optimised for gaming by Asus.
You can read our hands-on Asus ROG phone now, and you can also check out our first impressions in the video below.
Apart from raw power, the Snapdragon 845 chipset focuses on minimizing thermal throttling aided by the aforementioned cooling system. It also brings along a detachable cooler for an extra boost on the overheating prevention front – while still ensuring battery longevity so your gaming sessions on the go aren’t cut short.
The 6-inch screen keeps pace with the core hardware, as it’s an AMOLED display which supports HDR with a 90Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time to help ensure smooth frame rates.
It's a given that the phone is designed with gamers in mind, and that means side-mounted USB-C ports designed to plug into the controller and other gaming accessories, along with highly responsive game-focused controls that include advanced force feedback haptics and a pair of programmable ‘ultrasonic AirTriggers’.
Asus further unveiled a number of optional accessories to go with the ROG Phone. It includes a TwinView Dock which facilitates a dual-screen handheld mode and a Mobile Desktop Dock for those who want to use the phone to power a desktop-style gaming experience. There will also be a Gamevice controller, to give you console-like controls, and a WiGig Dock on offer to wirelessly cast your gaming sessions to a big screen.
ASUS ROG Phone will be available at Rs 69,999 exclusively on Flipkart starting 29th November 2018. A special no-cost EMI, with tenure options of 6, 9 and 12 months will also be available on all credit and debit cards. Under this scheme, the ROG Phone will be available for purchase by paying an EMI starting at Rs 5,833 per month for 12 months.
Accessories - Professional Dock, will be available at Rs 5,499; GameVice (Joystick) at Rs 5,999; TwinView Dock at Rs 21,999 Desktop Dock at Rs 12,999 and ROG Phone Case at Rs 2499.
Read our ROG Phone hands on here
Don’t bank on IoT
When we talk about the Internet of Things (IoT), we tend to envisage the vast opportunities available through connected devices. At the touch of a button we’re now able to heat the house for when we arrive home, remotely portion meals for our beloved pets, and even start the coffee machine while we’re in the midst of prying ourselves out of bed. Yes, the IoT revolution looks bright – but at what cost?
There’s no doubt that the IoT market has emerged at a rapid pace. By 2020, more than half of major new businesses will be using IoT in some capacity, and according to Gartner, investment in IoT and connected technology will rise to £429.01m. By the same date, IoT will encompass 26 billion devices worldwide, up from 900 million in 2009. Gartner also predicts IoT technology will be in 95 percent of electronics for new product designs. But, with the market emerging as quickly as it has, many manufacturers have created potentially vulnerable products, because they were not designed with high security in mind.
Barclays Digital Safety Index 2017 reports that 25 percent of UK adults has fallen victim to cyber fraud at least once in the past three years, and now smart homes represent a whole new area of attack. While the vulnerability of data produced by the IoT is a relatively new threat, the problem is expected to grow considerably over the next few years.
Proliferation of connected devicesThink about it – it’s January 2020. A consumer has several questionable transactions on their account. They’re dumbfounded. The fraudsters had all the correct details, so the purchases look legitimate. The consumer has been hit by “clean fraud”. Then the search for answers begins: When did they give out their card details or financial information? Could it be that someone else has passed on the information – a family member or colleague?
Then realisation sets in – the thermostat, the lightbulbs, the coffee machine – they’re all connected devices. The smart devices that have been connected wirelessly to the internet aren’t particularly secure, and it’s possible that the criminals have hacked into the devices and stolen personal information. Worse still, these criminals are making fraudulent purchases that appear legitimate to both issuers and merchants – costing all parties involved in the transaction.
Merchants and issuers must stay vigilant to this particular type of fraud, as cybercriminals increasingly make purchases through e-commerce sites with fraudulent payment information, or perhaps place purchases through someone else’s connected device without their knowledge. With so much room for error, merchants need to arm themselves against chargebacks – ensuring to use the latest technology to authenticate transactions.
In the next few years, the evolution of IoT will be a significant factor for the need to develop new security measures and methods. Emerging technologies like biometrics and blockchain could soon combat IoT fraud, and make authentication more secure, build trust between parties and devices, and reduce risk of collusion and tampering.
There’s little doubt that the growth of IoT devices will precipitate an increase in fraud and chargeback disputes. The best way to protect against fraud and overcome the challenges of an increasingly connected world is to remain vigilant and use the most effective and up-to-date fraud prevention tools.
Neil Smith, Regional Head, Issuer Sales, EMEA at Verifi
We've also highlighted six principles to secure the IoT
Lewis Hamilton: Why more technology can be good for Formula 1
Lewis Hamilton has praised the effect that technology has had on Formula 1, hailing it as one of the “most exciting” aspects of the sport today.
Speaking at a media session at the HPE Discover event in Madrid yesterday, the recently-crowned five-times Formula 1 world champion told TechRadar Pro that the relationship between sport and technology has never been more important, particularly as breakthroughs first seen on the racetrack continue to trickle down to modern road cars.
“It’s been amazing to see,” he said, “when I first started out in karting, it was obviously very basic, but then as I progressed to cars tech became a key factor.
“When I got to Formula 1 and saw how much technology is used, for example using the robot in building the engines, it’s fascinating - they plug a bunch of digits to the software and it churns out this incredible piece of work.”
“I remember flying to Boston in 2009 for the first time to see the new technology with batteries, and I remember going and seeing the process for that, and now seeing how that technology has evolved into road cars to become a massive part of the future.”
“It’s fascinating to be a part of it...the driving part is really the coolest part for me, but going to the factory and seeing the work of all these individuals and seeing the evolution of the technology is just as exciting.”
During a separate fireside chat at the event with HPE CEO Antonio Neri and Mercedes F1 team boss and CEO Toto Wolff, Hamilton reminisced about his unlikely past as an IT worker.
"I used to do IT,” he told Neri, remembering how at the age of 18, he worked for his father’s IT and network support firm in Stevenage, and he recalled travelling to London to visit the headquarters of major tech firms and touring various server rooms toi do test runs on mainframes.
Hamilton also called out the lack of diversity in the technology industry, noting to Neri that, “There's a lot of men (here), it's not very strong on the women front, why is that?”
The remark clearly took Neri by surprise, as he replied, “we have a problem here,” before highlighting the work HPE is doing in attempting to improve this.
The best VPN services of 2018
Google's Family Link means I don't need to worry about what the kids do on their phones
Kip Hakes is one of the UK's leading 'daddy bloggers. He enlisted the help of his six-year-old son James to try out Google's Family Link app with Nokia smartphones. You can follow Kip at his website, and on Twitter and Instagram.
I was an adult when I got my first phone, my daughter was around 10 when she got hers – and my son has been using one of his mum’s old phones since he was five. It’s not something he takes to school or leaves the house with – it’s merely a device on which he can play games, watch YouTube Kids, and send me and the rest of his family messages, endless emojis and GIFs on WhatsApp.
Handing over a smartphone to a child is a big step, and until recently it’s been hard to manage what your child can see and do on their phone. Manufacturers have created handsets specifically designed for kids, but they often come with their own ecosystems of apps, and fairly limited functionality and parental controls.
Nokia asked me to take a look at Google’s ‘Family Link’ app, which enables parents to manage the apps on their children’s device. They kindly sent me a Nokia 7.1, and my six-year-old son James a Nokia 3.1, to give the Family Link software a try.
The Family Link software comes in two flavors – there’s an app for the parents and an app for the children. They require both the adults and children to have Google Accounts (you can’t use Google Apps accounts like the ones your kids get at their school). The parent installs the app on their phone and becomes the ‘Family Manager’. You then install the child’s app on their phone, and create a ‘Family’. You can add additional ‘parents’ to the account, and more children too. The whole set-up process takes less than five minutes.
Once the Family is set up, there are myriad options at your disposal. You can choose which Apps the children have access to, and disable those they shouldn’t be using. You can set content filters for internet browsing and Google Play Store.
A feature I really like is that you can set screen time, so you don’t have to keep an eye on how much time your child is spending on their phone and take it away from them, as it’s limited automatically. You can also set ‘bed times’, so the phone is shut down when James is meant to be asleep. He would wake up early and play games occasionally, but that has stopped now – the phone knows that after 6pm and before 6.30am he shouldn’t be using it, and it won’t let him.
Talking about not using the phone, you can also ‘Lock’ the handset – so if there’s a time when you’d rather the children weren’t glued to their phones you can stop access immediately.
The Family Link app also shows what apps your children have been using, and how long for. If you’re worried that they’re spending too long glued to Minecraft, or Hay Day, you can disable the app with a swipe. You can also lock down the installation of new apps, or purchases via the Google Play Store – so there won’t be any surprises on your bank statement because your little angels have blown £300 on costumes and power-ups in their favorite games.
If your child is older and you want to keep an eye on their location, the Family Link app will show you the location of the handset, and if you press the navigation icon Google Maps will navigate you to their location. There’s also a ‘Play Sound’ function that will ring the handset (even if it’s on silent), which is helpful when a phone has fallen down the side of the sofa, or under the bed!
The Family Link software acts as a system administrator on the phone, in a similar way to how a ‘work phone’ might be tied to an organization. While the Family Link software is discreet, it does show a persistent notification on the handset to say that the device is being monitored by Family Link.
The beauty of having Family Link on the Nokia 7.1 and Nokia 3.1 is that they are Android One handsets. This, in layman's terms, mean they get the latest security patches and Android updates first. Android One has only been adopted by a handful of phone manufacturers (including Nokia), so it’s good to know that the phone’s operating system is always up to date and secure. You can’t guarantee this with older phones from other manufacturers – the old phone James was using hadn’t had a security update for years!
Family Link isn’t spy software – it doesn’t show you what’s on the screen of the kid’s phone, or send you copies of every message your child sends or receives. And it’s not a replacement for good parenting and keeping a close eye on your children; Family Link is a tool to ensure the phone isn’t used excessively, and that unsuitable apps and content are not available.
The granular controls enable you to set limits per child – so you’ll probably give your teenager more access than your six-year-old. Either way, Family Link is helping you to ensure that your children are shielded from the darker aspects of the internet. Plus, the screen time and bedtime functions enable you to make sure they aren’t as addicted to their phones as we all are!
Brought to you in association with Nokia and Android One, helping you to make more of your smartphone. You can learn more about the new Nokia 7.1 here, and you'll find more great advice on getting the most from your phone here.
Final day to get the cheapest Xbox One deals of the year
This is the last day to take advantage of the fantastic 15% off voucher code at eBay and it's well worth a look as it's produced the cheapest Xbox One deals and Xbox One X bundles in the UK right now. But only until 23:59 tonight, or until stocks last.
Just enter the voucher code 'PRESENTS' at the checkout and you can save 15% on a range of Xbox One products including the consoles and controllers. There's a minimum spend of £20 and a maximum discount and the code can only be used once.
You don't have to use it on Xbox One items, other console deals are covered too, actually. There's a whole bunch of categories you can browse through, but we've picked out the finest eBay Xbox One deals for you below. All our picks are brand new, unused and sold by reputable gaming retailers we've been buying from for years. We've also found some mega eBay discounts on Nintendo Switch prices and PS4 deals too.
Xbox One deals Shop by category at eBay for 15% off with 'PRESENTS'FurnitureVideo Game ConsoleLaptopsVideo GamesVirtual RealityComputer components and partsSmart watchesToys and gamesMore deal categoriesAnd you might be tempted to check out the remaining Cyber Monday deals that are still going. Want more options, then check out our roundups of the best Nintendo Switch deals and PS4 deals.
Qualcomm pledges $100m to AI startups
Qualcomm has detailed a new $100m investment fund for startups working in the field of mobile Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The first investment is in AnyVision, which specialises in face, body and object recognition for on-device AI capabilities. By analysing data on the device, the spread of data is minimised and therefore privacy is protected.
Qualcomm Ventures will make future investments in on-device AI with an emphasis on those developing technologies for areas like autonomous cars, robotics and Machine Learning (ML). These will build on Qualcomm’s own research efforts in the field of AI.
Qualcomm AI“This investment builds on our long history of successful AI investments, including Cruise Automation, Brain Corp., Clarifai, Prospera, SenseTime and Retail Next,” said Quinn Li, head of Qualcomm Ventures. “Through the AI Fund, we’ll continue to seek out startups, with a focus on autonomous cars, robotics, computer vision and IoT, who are developing new AI applications, advanced machine learning technologies and AI/ML platforms across different verticals.”
On-device AI is becoming a unique differentiator for major handsets, with features such as voice-activated assistants, intelligence-based personalisation and smart cameras becoming increasingly common.
5G networks will also accelerate adoption through faster speeds , greater capacity and ultra-low latency enabled by changes to operator’s core networks. Whereas most functions are currently deployed in the core, virtualisation and software defined software will allow these to be moved around the network, closer to the customer.
Qualcomm’s role in this shift is through the creation of AI-enabled components and 5G modems used by the world’s leading smartphone and device manufacutrers.
“At Qualcomm, we invent breakthrough technologies that transform how the world connects, computes, and communicates,” added Steve Mollenkopf, Qualcomm CEO. “For over a decade, Qualcomm has been investing in the future of machine learning. As a pioneer of on-device AI, we strongly believe intelligence is moving from the cloud to the edge. Qualcomm’s AI strategy couples leading 5G connectivity with our R&D, fueling AI to transform industries, business models and experiences.”
Here are the best mobile phone deals for November 2018
Best free iPad apps 2018: the top titles we've tried
Free apps sometimes have a bad reputation, but many are gems that are so good you won’t believe they’re free. We’ve scoured the App Store to find the very best, and sorted them into handy categories, which you can find on the following pages.
On this page you'll find the app of the week - our top new selection to try out, and check back every seven days where you'll find a new option to test. After that, it's the best entertainment apps (surely the best reason to own an iPad...) and a variety of categories on the following pages to tickle your fancy.
Free app of the week: Infltr
Infltr stands for ‘infinite filters’. The app isn’t quite packed with endless options (there are ‘only’ around seven million), but feels limitless as you drag a finger across a photo and watch it change.
But this is only one tool packed into a versatile, usable editor. You can crop, make adjustments to temperature and hue, fix perspective, mess around with blurs, and more.
Edits are non-destructive, so you can always update or remove a setting. You can save up to three favorites for one-tap application as well.
That limitation goes away if you pay for the subscription IAP - which also gives you HD export and additional tools, including color shift and selective HSL - but as a freebie, Infltr ably does the business. A no-brainer download for iPad users keen on fixing their snaps.
The best free entertainment apps for iPadOur favorite free iPad apps for having fun with your iPad, whether shopping, coloring, reading, watching TV or using Twitter.
Pocket is a read-later app. What this means is that rather than ending the day staring at dozens of unread browser tabs, you fling items of interest in Pocket’s direction. It then converts them into a streamlined personalized magazine you can peruse at your leisure.
The default iPad interface is an appealing grid, and individual articles are stripped back to words and images. This can be a major improvement over the original websites, letting you delve into content without distractions.
A night mode flips colors late in the day, to ensure you don’t get eye strain, but Pocket also allows you to ‘read with your ears’. This turns your reading list into an on-the-fly podcast. It’s an odd experience, but it can be nice to work through your reading list while cooking, walking or driving.
Infuse 5 is a video player that lets you get at video from pretty much anywhere. This means if you have a massive video collection, you needn’t load it all on to your iPad. Instead, you can quickly copy across items as and when you want to play them – or just stream from local network storage.
This app isn’t unique in the field, but it’s friendly and sleek. Set-up is a breeze, and even when streaming from your local network, metadata (cover art; item information) is automatically downloaded. It’s also possible to download subtitles on the fly.
The free version has restrictions that require an annual subscription to unlock: some video/audio formats; AirPlay and Google Cast support; background playback; library sync. But as a freebie for anyone who wants to stream videos to their iPad, Infuse 5 really can’t be beaten.
Pocket is a read- and watch-later app, designed to stop you amassing a billion open tabs in a web browser. Instead, you fashion interesting content into a personalized magazine you can later peruse.
On desktop, you use a bookmark to send items to Pocket; on iPad, you use the Share sheet. When you open the app, it’ll download everything you’ve sent, and can present what you want to look at as a straightforward list or a rather more appealing grid.
Videos appear as a pop-up you can make full screen, but the text reading experience is particularly strong, stripping cruft from websites to leave only words and images. There’s a dark mode for night reading, too, and even a speech option when you want to catch up on your stories but fancy some shut-eye.
Fiery Feeds is a full-featured RSS reader. If you’re unfamiliar with RSS, it enables you to subscribe to almost any website’s content. You’ll then in Fiery Feeds get a list of headlines whenever you open the app, ensuring you don’t miss articles from sources you trust.
Most free RSS readers are clunky, but Fiery Feeds bucks the trend with a sleek two-pane interface, and a slew of customization options. It feels modern, but gives you very direct control over what you read, unlike the likes of News or Flipboard.
There’s a paid tier, too – US$9.99/£9.99/AU$14.99 per year – which unlocks additional features, including a ‘must read’ folder, a text view mode (which loads full articles for sites that otherwise only send you synopses), and custom actions. Whichever flavor you plump for, Fiery Feeds is well worth installing on your iPad.
VLC for Mobile is an iPad take on the popular open source media player.
On iPad, it has two main uses. The first is offline playback. You can load up VLC with videos, and – broadly speaking – be secure in the knowledge it’s actually going to be capable of playing them. During said playback, you can fiddle with the picture and audio, and use gestures to skip through boring sections – or backwards if you missed a bit.
VLC is also good for streaming. You can stream movies from a PC or Mac right to your iPad, rather than having to sit in front of a computer like it’s 2005. The interface throughout is sleek and minimal (irritating zooming to the options sidebar aside), and impressive for a video streaming app that’s entirely free.
JustWatch solves one of the biggest problems with the way we consume television and movies. With streaming services and on-demand increasingly rendering traditional schedules redundant, the key is usually finding out where and how to watch something, not when.
JustWatch asks you to confirm your location and the services that interest you. If you’re still into the big screen, there’s a tab for currently showing movies, which makes it a cinch to access local showtimes.
But this app’s mostly about TV, providing filterable feeds that list popular shows and bargains – and where to find them. Select a show, tap on an icon, and you’re whisked away to the relevant app. Whatever you want to see, JustWatch makes reaching it a whole lot easier.
Letterboxd is an iPad take on a social network for film lovers. Sign up, and you can do all the usual following friends and bellyaching, only here you’re complaining about whether Blade Runner 2049 is 2049 times worse than the original, and who’s the best James Bond. If that sounds awful but you’re a film lover, Letterboxd has another use: the ability to log everything you’ve ever watched.
You can quickly assign ratings and ‘likes’ to your personal favorites, which are subsequently displayed as a grid of artwork that can be sorted and filtered. Beyond that, you can add tags, a review, and the date when you last watched the film. On the iPad’s large display, the entire app looks great – not least when you start checking out trailers of those films you’re keen to see.
If you’ve any interest in wildlife films, Attenborough Story of Life is a must-have. It features over a thousand clips picked from Attenborough’s decades-long journey through what he refers to as the “greatest story of all…how animals and plants came to fill our Earth”.
The app is split into three sections. You’re initially urged to delve into some featured collections, but can also explore by habitat or species, unearthing everything from big-toothed sharks to tiny penguins skittering about. Clips can be saved as favorites, or grouped into custom collections to later peruse or share with friends.
Some of the footage is noticeably low-res on an iPad – there’s nothing here to concern your Blu-Rays, and that’s a pity. Still, for instant access to such a wealth of amazing programming, this one’s not to be missed.
The majority of comic-book readers on the App Store are tied to online stores, and any emphasis on quality in the actual apps isn't always placed on the reading part.
But with many more publishers embracing DRM-free downloads, having a really great reading app is essential if you're into digital comics. Chunky Comic Reader is the best available on iOS.
The interface is smart, simple and boasts plenty of settings, including the means to eradicate animation entirely when flipping pages.
Rendering is top-notch, even for relatively low-res fare. And you get the option of one- or two-up page views. For free, you can access web storage to upload comics. A single $3.99/£3.99/AU$5.99 pro upgrade adds support for shared Mac/PC/NAS drives.
eBay provides access to a colossal online marketplace. Anyone can sell, and so you’ll find huge brands mingling with individuals attempting to offload the entire contents of their basements and attics.
Something of a design playground, the iPad app is regularly reworked; but whatever eBay’s designers come up with, a large touchscreen device proves to be the best way to search. You can quickly drill down into categories, and explore individual listings, swiping between photos.
If you need to keep track of things, the app offers automated notifications, and can flag searches, making it easy to see whenever new matching listings appear. And if you want to sell yourself, you can do that in-app, with eBay providing shortcuts to get your listing started (through barcode scanning or matching your item to publicly available information about it).
Part meditative relaxation tool, part sleep aid, Melodist is all about creating melodies from imagery. All you have to do is load something from your Camera Roll, and the app does the rest.
On analyzing your photo or screen grab for changes in hues, saturation and brightness, a music loop is generated. You can adjust the playback speed, instrument and visual effect (which starts off as a lazily scrolling piano roll), along with setting a timer.
Although occasionally discordant, the app mostly creates very pleasing sounds. And while it’s perhaps missing a trick in not displaying your photo as-is underneath the notes being played (your image is instead heavily blurred as a background), you can export each tune as audio or a video that shows the picture alongside the animation.
These free exports are a pretty generous gesture by the developer; if you want to return the favor, there’s affordable IAP for extra sounds, animation and MIDI export.
After years of eyesight deterioration, John Hull became blind in 1983. Notes on Blindness VR has six chapters taken from his journal of the time. Each is set in a specific location, marrying John’s narrative, binaural audio, and real-time 3D animation, to create an immersive experience of a ‘world beyond sight’.
Although designed as a VR experience, this app remains effective when holding an iPad in front of your face, moving the screen about to scan your surroundings. The mood shifts throughout – there’s wonder in a blind John’s discovery of the beauty of rain, disconnection when he finds things ‘disappear’ from the world when sound stops, and a harrowing section on panic.
Towards the end, John mulls he’s “starting to understand what it’s like to be blind,” and you may get a sense of what it’s like, too, from the app, which ably showcases how to craft an engaging screen-based experience beyond the confines of television.
Adult colouring books are all the rage, proponents claiming bringing colour to intricate abstract shapes helps reduce stress - at least until you realise you've got pen on your shirt and ground oil pastels into the sofa.
You'd think the process of colouring would be ideal for iPad, but most relevant apps are awful, some even forcing tap-to-fill. That is to colouring what using a motorbike is to running a marathon - a big cheat. Pigment is an exception, marrying a love for colouring with serious digital smarts.
On selecting an illustration, there's a range of palettes and tools to explore. You can use pencils and markers, adjusting opacity and brush sizes, and work with subtle gradients. Colouring can be 'freestyle', or you can tap to select an area and ensure you don't go over the lines while furiously scribbling. With a finger, Pigment works well, but it's better with a stylus; with an iPad Pro and a Pencil, you'll lob your real books in the bin.
The one niggle: printing and accessing the larger library requires a subscription in-app purchase. It's a pity there's no one-off payment for individual books, but you do get plenty of free illustrations, and so it's hard to grumble.
With a noodly soundtrack playing in the background, WWF Together invites you to spin a papercraft world and tap points of interest to learn more about endangered species. 16 creatures get fuller treatment - a navigable presentation of sorts that hangs on a key characteristic, such as a panda's charisma, or an elephant's intelligence.
These sections are arranged as a three-by-three grid, each screen of which gives you something different, be it statistics, gorgeous photography, or a 'facetime' movie that gives you a chance to get up close and personal.
Apps that mix charity and education can often come across as dry and worthy, but WWF Together is neither. It's informative but charming, and emotive but fun.
Rather neatly, stories can be shared by email, and this screen further rewards you with origami instructions to make your own paper animal; once constructed, it can sit on the desk next to all your technology, reminding you of the more fragile things that exist in our world.
YouTube is the best way to watch YouTube videos on your iPad. On the dynamic Home tab, you can quickly get at interesting stuff. It includes channels you subscribe to, and videos you didn’t yet finish watching; but also, it makes recommendations based on your viewing habits. The more you watch, the better they get.
On selecting something to watch, the video itself sits at the top-left of the screen, allowing you to scroll through comments other viewers have left, and peruse an up-next feed. There’s also a full-screen view for a more immersive experience.
Fittingly, for a service seemingly attempting to usurp traditional television, the YouTube app also provides access to content you’ve bought on Google Play. And with AirPlay and Chromecast support, getting what you’re watching to an actual telly is a cinch, too.
Can't figure out which iPad to buy? Watch our guide video below!
For a mix of free and paid apps, check out our amazing Best iPad apps chart. If you're more into a smaller form-factor or have your eye on the iPhone X check out our list of the best free iPhone apps.Haven't bought an iPad yet and not sure which is best? We've got them listed on our best iPad ranking - or you can check out the best tablets list to see the full range available now.Are you a professional? Then our pick of the 10 best business apps should have something for you. The best free art and design apps for iPadOur favorite free iPad apps for painting, sketching, drawing, graphic design and animation.
Adobe Spark Post finds Photoshop creator Adobe asking how quickly it’d be possible for someone to fashion gorgeous layouts on an iPad. The answer, as it turns out, is: very.
Adobe describes its app as ‘frictionless graphic design,’ and it’s easy to see why. You can start with a selection of your own images that are then arranged into a grid, or work from a predefined template. At any point, a few taps can drastically update what’s in front of you, with new (and tasteful) arrangements and typography.
It’s quite a lot of fun to keep tapping away, to see what Spark Post will come up with, but at some point you’ll want to actually use what you make. Even then, this app’s really smart, automatically shuffling components around to optimize your layout for social network profile shots or embedded imagery.
Unsplash is an app that gives you fast access to many thousands of images generously gifted to the Unsplash website by the photographic community. These photographs can be used entirely for free, for any purposes you wish, and can be modified as you see fit.
The app and available photographs are both rather good. You can search for something specific, browse new photos, or explore by themes. The large iPad display is the perfect lean-back way to look through dozens of images, flicking between them in full-screen mode.
It’s a pity there’s no download option, nor a means to follow specific photographers. But then this one’s all about effortlessness and immediacy, and knowing that whenever you do find something that inspires you, it can be downloaded to your iPad’s Photos app with a single tap.
Artomaton - The Motion Painter is a little like Prisma, in that it uses AI to transform photos into something that looks like it was painted or sketched. However, this isn’t a single-tap filter app; Artomaton wants to afford you at least some control over your creations.
To start with, you paint in the natural media effects to the degree you’re happy with. Do so lightly and you get the subtlest of sketches; cover every inch of the canvas and you end up with a more complete piece of art. Beyond that, there are plenty of settings to fiddle with.
The resulting images aren’t always entirely convincing in terms of realism, but they always look good. And although many materials are locked behind IAP, you get plenty for free.
On the desktop, Adobe Illustrator is more about enabling creative types to work up pin-sharp illustrative fare than freehand drawing. But on iPad, Adobe Illustrator Draw concentrates on doodling. You can experiment with five highly configurable brush tips, which feel great whether drawing with a stylus or a finger.
But dig deeper into the options and the professional sheen of this app becomes apparent. There are perspective grids, a layers system for mixing and matching artwork and imagery for tracing over, and stencils you temporarily overlay when extra precision is needed.
Completed images can be exported to Camera Roll or the clipboard, and Adobe Creative Cloud users can also send art to Photoshop or Illustrator with layers preserved.
A straightforward vector export option would be nice, although that’s perhaps too big an ask for a free app designed to suck you into a larger ecosystem.
We tend to quickly shift children from finger-painting to using much finer tools, but the iPad shows there's plenty of power in your digits — if you're using the right app.
Autodesk SketchBook provides all the tools you need for digital sketching, from basic doodles through to intricate and painterly masterpieces; and if you're wanting to share your technique, you can even time-lapse record to save drawing sessions to your camera roll.
The core app is free, but it will cost you $4.99/£4.99/AU$7.99 to unlock the pro features.
The original Brushes app was one of the most important in the iPhone's early days. With Jorge Colombo using it to paint a New Yorker cover, it showcased the potential of the technology, and that an iPhone could be used for production, rather than merely consumption.
Brushes eventually stopped being updated, but fortunately went open source beforehand. Brushes Redux is the result.
On the iPad, you can take advantage of the much larger screen. But the main benefit of the app is its approachable nature. It's extremely easy to use, but also has plenty of power for those who need it, not least in the layering system and the superb brush designer.
The idea behind Canva is to do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to creating great-looking layouts based on your photos. Select a layout type (presentation, blog graphic, invitation, and so on) and the app serves up templates to work with.
These are mostly very smart indeed, but the smartest thing about Canva is that these starting points can all be edited: swap out images for your own photos, adjust text boxes, and add new elements or even entire pages.
Because of its scope, Canva isn't as immediate as one-click automated apps in this space, but the interface is intuitive enough to quickly grasp. Our only niggle is the lack of multi-item selection, but with Canva being an online service, you can always fine-tune your iPad creations in a browser on the desktop.
Despite being lumbered with an awkward name, Pixel art editor - Dottable is a usable and nicely-conceived app. Choose a canvas size and then the interface is split between your drawing area, layers, and tools.
The basics are all there for creating old-school pixel art, but beyond brushes and fills, Dottable adds some fairly sophisticated shapes and transform tools.
If you want to trace an image, it can be imported, and optionally converted to pixel art form. Exports are also dealt with nicely, either exporting your image as a PNG, or converting each layer into a single frame of an animated GIF.
None of this is enough to trouble the pro-oriented Pixaki, but as a freebie for pixel artists, Dottable is mightily impressive.
One of the great things about the app revolution is how these bits of software can help you experience creative fare that would have previously been inaccessible, unless you were armed with tons of cash and loads of time. Folioscope is a case in point, providing the basics for crafting your own animations.
We should note you’re not going to be the next Disney with Folioscope – the tools are fairly basic, and the output veers towards ‘wobbling stickmen’.
But you do get a range of brushes (of differing size and texture), several drawing tools (pen, eraser, flood fill, and marquee), and onion-skinning, which enables you to see faint impressions of adjacent frames, in order to line everything up.
The friendly nature of the app makes it accessible to anyone, and there’s no limit on export – projects can be shared as GIFs or movies, or uploaded to the Folioscope community, should you create an account.
MediBang Paint feels like one of those apps where you’re always waiting for the catch to arrive. Create a new canvas and you end up staring at what can only be described as a simplified Photoshop on your iPad. There are loads of drawing tools, a layers system (including photo import), and configurable brushes.
Opening up menus reveals yet more features – rotation; shapes; grids – but palettes can also be hidden, so you can get on with just drawing. Judging by the in-app gallery of uploaded art, MediBang is popular with manga artists, but its tools are capable enough to support a much wider range of digital painting and drawing styles – all without costing you a penny.
You won’t trouble Hollywood with PicsArt (or PicsArt Animated Gif & Video Animator to use its unwieldy full name). However, it is a great introduction to animation and also a handy sketchpad for those already immersed in the field.
A beginner can start with a blank slate, paper texture, or photo background, on to which an animation frame is drawn. Add further frames and previous ones faintly show through, to aid you in making smooth transitions.
Delve further into the app to discover more advanced fare, including brush options and a hugely useful layers system. When done, export to GIF or video – or save projects to refine later. That this all comes for free (and free from ads) is astonishing.
Quark DesignPad scratches an itch if you need to get started on some layouts while on the go with your iPad – or just fancy doing the same away from the glowing screen of your Mac or PC.
This isn’t a full-fledged desktop publishing app, note. Instead, it’s about creating frameworks for page designs – wireframes that show the placement of headings, images, columns, and boxes. You can work pages up from scratch, or use one of the pre-defined layouts. With its grids, pop-up menus, and a little nudge ‘joystick’, the interface proves to be flexible and efficient.
Output options, however, are initially limited. You can save flat images to Photos, but if you want PDFs or to print via AirPrint, you’ll need to go pro ($9.99/£9.99/AU$14.99).
Although it's apparently designed for kids aged 9-11, Seedling Comic Studio comes across a lot like a free (if somewhat stripped back) take on iPad classic Comic Life. You load images from your Camera Roll (or take new ones with the camera), arrange them into comic-book frames, and can then add all manner of speech balloons, filters and stickers.
Decided that your heroic Miniature Schnauzer should have to save the world from a giant comic-book sandwich? This is your app! Naturally, there are limitations lurking. The filter system is a bit rubbish, requiring you to cycle through the dozen or so on offer, rather than pick favourites more directly, and a few of the sticker packs require IAP.
But for no outlay at all, there's plenty of scope here for comic-book creation, from multi-page documents you can output to PDF, to amusing poster-like pages you can share on social networks. And that's true whether you're 9 or 49.
Tayasui Sketches is a drawing tool, designed to be realistic, versatile, and usable. And although various IAPs lurk for the full toolset (which includes a ruler, extra layers, and pressure sensitivity), you get an awful lot for free.
You start by selecting a paper type, or use an imported photo as the basis for your masterpiece. Then it’s time to get cracking with the pens and brushes. Although it’s perhaps a stretch to call them totally realistic, they all offer pleasing results. The watercolor brush in particular is lovely, bleeding into the paper and leaving splats on the canvas when you tap the screen.
In fact, the app as a whole is very pleasant to use, offering the right balance between trying to help and getting out of your way when you’re busy painting. And as a final neat touch, if you’re stuck for inspiration there are some coloring book pages thrown in for free.
The best free education apps for iPadOur favorite free iPad apps for learning new things – from coding to astronomy.
Night Sky puts the planets and stars inside your iPad. More importantly, it goes above and beyond in the ways you can explore them.
Like many other astronomy apps, you can drag to adjust the view or explore the heavens by holding your iPad in front of your face and physically moving around. Chill-out music burbles away in the background, and there’s visual bling in the form of illustrated constellation overlays.
But here, constellations and celestial bodies can be pulled from the main view. They can then be moved with a finger or walked around in AR. With constellations in particular, this provides a great understanding of depths and distances.
Beyond that, you get Siri support, a moon map, advice on local planetariums, and many more features – and that’s before there’s even a hint of monthly IAP to access the Grand Orrery and live sky tours.
Civilisations AR is an augmented reality app that puts over 30 historical artifacts in front of your face, ranging from an ancient Egyptian mummy to iconic modern art. It feels like a thoroughly modern way of exploring the past, enabling you to check out every nook and cranny of these famous objects.
Spin a globe to see where the items are from, then tap to select one and it will appear before you, ready to be resized and spun around. Discoverable hot-spots offer up more information by way of voiceovers.
Surprisingly, even paintings work really nicely in this app, enabling you to put your nose right up to the virtual canvas and inspect individual paint marks. An iPad display is big enough for you to truly appreciate these works of wonder.
JigSpace uses augmented reality (AR) to educate, by way of 3D models you can fiddle about with before your very eyes. Although the range isn’t exactly in Wikipedia territory, you get quite the variety of ‘jigs’ for free. There’s the anatomy of a trebuchet, a floating eye to fiddle around with, a manual car’s transmission, and many more.
JigSpace rapidly finds a flat surface onto which your object is projected. You can then pinch to resize it, or spin it with a swipe. Objects aren’t static either – many animate, and are gradually disassembled across a series of slides. For example, an alarm clock opens to show its gears and mechanisms – and because this is AR, you can check everything out from any angle.
Maybe it's just our tech-addled brains, but often we find it a lot easier to focus on an app than a book, which can make learning things the old fashioned way tricky. That's where Khan Academy comes in. This free app contains lessons and guidance on dozens of subjects, from algebra, to cosmology, to computer science and beyond.
As it's an app rather than a book it benefits from videos and even a few interactive elements, alongside words and pictures and it contains over 10,000 videos and explanations in all.
Everything is broken in to bite-sized chunks, so whether you've got a few minutes to spare or a whole afternoon there's always time to learn something new and if you make an account it will keep track of your progress and award achievements.
Py wants to teach you to communicate with computers. You provide some information about the kind of coding you fancy doing, and it recommends a course – anything from basic HTML through to delving into Python.
Lessons are very reminiscent of those in language-learning freebie Duolingo. A colorful, cartoonish interface provides questions, and you type out your answer or select from multiple choice options.
Py could be more helpful when you get something wrong, but its breezy, pacy nature gives it a real energy and game-like feel that boosts focus and longevity.
Unlike Duolingo, Py doesn’t have any interest in being free forever. A premium tier locks a chunk of content behind a monthly fee (along with access to mentors, who can help you through tough spots via an integrated chat). But for no outlay, there’s still plenty here for budding website - and app - creators to get stuck into.
SkyView Free is a stargazing app that very much wants you to get off your behind and outside, or at least hold your iPad aloft to explore the heavens.
Unlike TechRadar favourite Sky Guide, there's no means to drag a finger to manually move the sky around - you must always point your iPad's display where you want to look - but there's no price-tag either. And for free, this app does the business.
There are minimal ads, a noodly atmospheric soundtrack, an optional augmented reality view (to overlay app graphics on to the actual sky), and a handy search that'll point you in the direction of Mars, Ursa Major, or the International Space Station.
Swift Playgrounds is an app about coding, although you’d initially be forgiven for thinking it a weird game. Early lessons involve guiding oddball cartoon cyclops Byte about an isometric landscape by way of typed commands, having him trigger switches and grab gems along the way.
This is, of course, sneakily teaching you the fundamentals of logic and programming, and the lessons do then gradually become more involved. However, at no point does Swift Playgrounds become overwhelming. And the split-screen set-up – instructions and code on the left; interactive world based on your work on the right – feels friendly and intuitive.
It’s not Xcode for iPad, then, but perhaps a first step in that direction. More importantly, Swift Playgrounds can act as a first step for people who want to start coding their own apps, but for whom the very idea has, to date, simply been too daunting.
Often, third-party apps improve on bare-bones equivalents provided as the ‘official’ take on a product, but Wikipedia is an exception. This freebie app for browsing the online encyclopedia is excellent on iPad – and probably the best option on the platform.
The Explore page lists a bunch of nearby and topical articles; after a few uses, it’ll also recommend things it reckons you’d like to read. Tap an article and the screen splits in two – (collapsible) table of contents to the left and your chosen article to the right. Articles can be searched and saved, the latter option storing them for offline perusal.
It’s a pity Wikipedia doesn’t rework the Peek/Pop previews from the iPhone version (by way of a long-tap), but otherwise this is an excellent, usable encyclopedia for the modern age.
Learning a musical instrument isn't easy, which is probably why a bunch of people don't bother, instead pretending to be rock stars by way of tiny plastic instruments and their parent videogames.
Yousician bridges the divide, flipping a kind of Guitar Hero interface 90 degrees and using its visual and timing devices to get you playing chords and notes.
This proves remarkably effective, and your iPad merrily keeps track of your skills (or lack thereof) through its internal mic. The difficulty curve is slight, but the app enables you to skip ahead if you're bored, through periodic 'test' rounds. Most surprisingly, for free you get access to everything, only your daily lesson time is limited.
TED is a video app designed to feed your curiosity, by watching smart people talk about all kinds of subjects.
Although the organization’s name stands for ‘Technology, Entertainment, Design’, it’s fundamentally interested in ideas. Example talks we watched during testing included a piece about screen time for kids (and why related fears are not true), not suffering in silence from depression, and mind-blowing magnified portraits of insects. What we’re saying is: this app has range.
It also has smarts. Along with a standard search, you can have the app ‘surprise you’ with something courageous, beautiful, or fascinating, and revisit favorites by delving into your watch history and liked talks, which sync across devices.
TED’s perhaps not an app you’ll open daily, but it’s a breath of fresh air when you desire brain food rather than typical telly.
The best free health, food and exercise apps for iPadOur favorite free iPad apps for cooking, relaxing and keeping fit.
Oak - Meditation & Breathing is an app that wants you to relax. It’s split into sections for meditation, breathing, and sleeping. A stats area provides the means to track progress, with you gaining streaks and winning badges through regular use.
Meditations can be guided or unguided, catering for all skill levels, and although you don’t get the wealth of options available in some apps, you can adjust instructor gender, session duration, and background noise. The three breathing exercises cover relaxation, focus, and invigoration. And the Sleep section offers guided breath exercises designed to help you unwind.
On iPad, the interface betrays the app’s iPhone origins and could do with optimization for the larger display. Other than that, Oak’s pleasing and effective – and won’t surprise you a few weeks in with a stressful demand for IAP.
Tasty is a cookery app that wisely reasons modern-day cookbooks need to move beyond being digital equivalents of paper-based tomes. It achieves this by way of fast, filterable searches, and judicious use of video.
Rather than opening with a photo, your selected recipe instead initially shows the dish being made by way of a tightly edited video. Below that, you get an ingredients list (which can be exported), tips and step-by-step instructions.
Tap a button below the last of those and each step’s text and video loop is isolated – a great way, when cooking, to sanity-check you’re doing the right thing, and aren’t on the road to a culinary disaster.
Many of us are caught in high-stress environments for much of our lives, and electronic gadgets often do little to help. Apple has recognized this on Apple Watch, which offers a breathing visualization tool. But Breathe+ brings similar functionality to your iPad.
You define how long breaths in and out should take, and whether you want to hold your breath at any point during the cycle. You then let Breathe+ guide your breathing for a user-defined session length.
The visualization is reminiscent of a minimalist illustrator's take on a wave rising and falling on the screen, but you can also close your eyes and have the iPad vibrate for cues. For free, there are some ads, which aren't pretty, but don't distract too much. For $1.99/£1.99/AU$2.99, you can be rid of them, along with adding themes and usage history stats.
As you launch Kitchen Stories, you catch a glimpse of the app's mantra: "Anyone can cook". The problem is, most cooking apps (and indeed, traditional cookery books) make assumptions regarding people's abilities.
Faced with a list of steps on a stark white page, it's easy to get halfway through a recipe, look at the stodge in front of you, reason something must have gone terribly wrong, and order a takeaway.
Kitchen Stories offers firmer footing. You're first met with a wall of gorgeous photography. More importantly, the photographs don't stop.
Every step in a recipe is accompanied by a picture that shows how things should be at that point. Additionally, some recipes provide tutorial videos for potentially tricky skills and techniques. Fancy some Vietnamese pho, but not sure how to peel ginger, prepare a chilli or thinly slice meat? Kitchen Stories has you covered.
Beyond this, there's a shopping list, handy essentials guide, and some magazine-style articles to peruse. And while you don't get the sheer range of recipes found in some rival apps, the presentation more than makes up for that — especially on the iPad, which will likely find a new home in your own kitchen soon after Kitchen Stories is installed.
There's a tendency for relaxation aids to be noodly and dull, but TaoMix 2 bucks the trend. You get the usual sounds to aid relaxation (wind, rain, birds, water), but also an interface that nudges the app towards being a tool for creating a kind of ambient personal soundtrack.
The basics are dead simple: tap the + button, select a sound pack, and drag a sound to the canvas. You then manually position the circular cursor within the soundscape, or slowly flick so it lazily bounces around the screen, your various sounds then ebbing and flowing into the mix.
This makes TaoMix 2 more fun to play with than its many rivals. Of course, if you just want to shut the world out, that option exists too: load a soundscape you've previously created, set a timer, and use TaoMix 2 to help you nod off.
Should you want something other than what's found within the generous selection of built-in noises, packs are available for purchase (including whale sounds, 'Japanese garden' and orchestral strings); and if you fancy something entirely more custom, you can even import sounds of your own.
There are quite a few apps for creating ambient background noise, helping you to focus, relax, and even sleep. White Noise+ is perhaps the best we’ve seen – a really smartly designed mix of sound and interface design that is extremely intuitive yet thoroughly modern.
It works through you adding sounds to an on-screen grid. Those placed towards the right become more complex, and those towards the top are louder. Personalized mixes can be saved, or you can play several that are pre-loaded.
For free, you do get an ad across the bottom of the screen, only five sounds, and no access to timers and alarms. But even with such restrictions, White Noise+ is pretty great. Throw $2.99/£2.99/AU$4.49 at it for the extra features and noises, and it borders on exceptional.
7 Minute Workout is designed to give you a complete fitness workout in just seven minutes. It’s far from alone on the App Store, but we like this take because it’s straightforward – and also properly free (rather than being riddled with IAP).
The exercise screens are basic, but bold. It’s always obvious where you are in a routine, and if you’re unsure about the next step, you can tap a video playback button to view a demonstration.
Beyond the exercises, the app enables you to track your weight and set the gap between exercises, which are regularly switched during the routine. The only downside is not being able to block specific exercises if, for example, you don’t have access to a chair, or cannot perform them due to accessibility reasons.
Epicurious is a massive recipe book for iPad. It provides access to over 35,000 recipes, and offers a magazine-like presentation. The entry screen is awash with new recipes with vibrant photography; you can quickly flick between that and dedicated pages for themed recipes and new videos.
The app’s search is excellent. You can select by meal type, and filter available recipes by selecting specific ingredients, cuisine types, and dietary issues (such as low-fat and wheat-free). Flicking back and forth between filters and results can irk, but the app at least does so quickly and efficiently.
The actual recipe pages are a touch basic – there’s no hand-holding like the step-by-step photos you get in Kitchen Stories. Still, if confident in your abilities, it’s a great app to broaden your culinary horizons.
The best free kids apps for iPadOur favorite free iPad apps, learning tools, and games for toddlers and children.
Lego Creator Islands is for fans of the popular construction toy when there are no plastic bricks close at hand. It starts you off with a little island, on which you build a house. Construction is simple: tap piles of bricks and they magically combine into pieces of a finished Lego set, which you drag into place.
Rinse and repeat a few times and your kid will beam as they watch their island increasingly come alive, populated with Lego minifigs and bounding Lego animals, and dotted with buildings, trees and vehicles.
The experience is, admittedly, not that deep, and you can see most of what it has to offer in an hour or so. But it’s always fun to return to, and certainly beats treading on a Lego brick while barefoot.
Sago Mini Friends is a sweet-natured collection of adorable mini-games, ideal for young children. After selecting a character to play, you visit a neighborhood of colorful houses. Knock on a door and you’ll be invited inside for a playdate.
The activities are varied and smartly designed. There’s a birthday party, where gifts are gleefully unwrapped, and a birdhouse to fix by hammering in nails. Our favorite, though, is a cleverly conceived snack time that finds two friends sitting side-by-side. Feed one and the other looks a bit glum, which encourages the young player to learn to share.
Entirely lacking IAP and advertising, Sago Mini Friends is a no-brainer for any parent who wants a safe, free, fun, educational app for their youngster to spend a bit of quality time with.
LEGO AR-Studio is the app we first thought of when Apple started banging on about augmented reality. After all, who wouldn’t want a bunch of virtual Lego bricks to play with, which could magically integrate with the real world?
Well, it turns out Lego wouldn’t, because that’s not what this app offers. Instead, you get a small selection of AR Lego kits, which you can mess about with, take videos of, and thereby try to trick your friends into wondering why their own Lego doesn’t zoom about the place on remote control.
It’s admittedly a bit shallow, and feels a touch proof-of-concept. But here’s hoping this is just the app equivalent of a Lego baseplate on which to build, rather than a completed set.
According to the developer's blurb, Zen Studio is all about helping children to relax and focus, by providing a kind of finger-painting that can only exist in the digital realm. Frankly, we take issue with the 'children' bit, because Zen Studio has a welcoming and pleasing nature that should ensure it's a hit with every iPad user.
You start off with a grid of triangles and a column of colored paints. Tap a paint to choose your color and then tap individual triangles or drag across the grid to start drawing. Every gesture you make is accompanied by musical notes that play over an ambient background soundtrack.
Bar the atmosphere being knocked a touch by a loud squelch noise whenever a new paint tube is selected, the mix of drawing tool and musical instrument is intoxicating. When you're done, your picture can be squirted to the Photos app, ready for sharing with the world.
This is, however, a limited freebie in some ways. You get eight canvases, which can be blank or based on templates. If you want more, you can buy an IAP to unlock the premium version of the app. Still, for no outlay at all, you get a good few hours of chill-out noodly fun — more, if you're happy drawing over the same canvases again and again.
Doctor Who: Comic Creator does what you’d expect from its name. When you’re between seasons of the hit sci-fi show, you can satisfy yourself by fashioning custom adventures about everyone’s favorite regenerating time traveler, who goes everywhere and everywhen in a beaten-up old time machine.
Creating comics is akin to slapping down stickers – only you can move things around later. And you get a pleasingly diverse range of page layouts, along with a monster maker, so you can combine parts of the Doctor’s enemies into something suitably horrific.
The main downside is most foes lurk behind various IAPs – would it have killed the BBC to throw in a Cyberman for free? Sadly, there’s no way to use the app to get all timey-wimey and change people’s minds when the app was being made.
Lego Life is a social network for kids whose lives revolve around plastic bricks. Once you’re signed up, you explore feeds and follow themes, to become a better builder, or just see what’s current in the world of Lego.
Unsurprisingly, there’s a nod towards advertising of a kind, in new product videos being liberally sprinkled about. But mostly, this is an app about inspiration. You’re regularly offered building challenges and knowledge tests; during lazy days, you can slap stickers all over a virtual Lego kit, or build a mini-figure for your profile.
Given that it’ll mostly be kids using the app, it’s worth noting usernames are anonymized. You can’t type your own, and instead select from semi-random word lists. EmpressSensibleMotorbike, meet ElderSupersonicJelly!
Laugh & Learn Shapes & Colors Music Show for Baby is a two-part game designed for children as young as six months old.
In Level 1, your youngling – now armed with a worryingly expensive piece of technology – can tilt and tap the screen to make shapes appear and bounce around. But Level 2 ramps things up considerably.
“Let’s put on a show,” chirps the app as the five shapes wiggle and jig about on the screen, lurking above a colorful keyboard. And you know what’s next: maddeningly jaunty earworms, augmented by a deliriously happy baby smacking the huge piano keys.
Your slow descent into madness will be worth it for the smile on their little face.
Toca Tailor Fairy Tales is a dressing up app. You choose from a male or female customer, and then set about giving them a new and exciting outfit.
As with other Toca Boca fare, this is a tactile, immediate app. Tap a garment to adjust its type; drag and you’ll change its length. Accessories can be added from an expanding box, if you decide your appreciative on-screen ‘manakin’ needs a trendy hat.
The best bit, though, is the materials section. For each part of the garment, you can drag and drop materials onto it. This isn’t a question of merely recoloring either – you can pinch/rotate to make all kinds of crazy patterns, and even import photos or snap a texture using the iPad’s camera. Great stuff for tiny wannabe fashion designers.
The best free music and audio apps for iPadOur favorite free iPad apps for listening to podcasts, making music or being a virtual DJ.
AudioKit Synth One Synthesizer is an iPad synth bursting at the seams with dials to twiddle, buttons to push, and all kinds of exciting noises that blast forth from your speakers.
Even if you’re not overly musically inclined, there’s fun to be had here by selecting presets - many of which use a built-in user-friendly sequencer, so you can fire off a melody by holding down a single key. There’s loads for musicians to delve into, including Audiobus and IAA support, customizable filters, and touchpad play surfaces.
It’s hugely impressive and the sort of thing you’d usually expect to set you back north of 30 bucks, so it’s all the more surprising that Synth One is entirely free from ads and IAP - and that will always be the case, given that it’s also an open-source project.
Novation Launchpad is about remixing electronic music using a grid of loops. For the beginner, it’s a friendly, intuitive introduction to music-making. You load a genre and just tap away, safe in the knowledge everything will always sound great. You can even record live mixes and share them with friends.
There’s depth to Novation Launchpad as well – effects to apply, filters to experiment with, and the option to mix and match pad sounds. If you’re prepared to dip into your wallet, you can take things much further, importing your own audio files and working with a larger range of effects.
On iPad, you can buy all of these things – and a MIDI sync feature – for a one-off $14.99/£14.99/$AU22.99 IAP. But even if you stick to the free version, Novation Launchpad proves to be suitably noisy fun.
The thinking behind Auxy Music Studio is that music-making - both in the real world and software - has become too complicated. This app therefore strives to combine the immediacy of something like Novation Launchpad's loop triggers with a basic piano roll editor.
For each instrument, you choose between drums and decidedly electronic synths. You then compose loops of between one and four bars, tapping out notes on the piano roll's grid. Subsequent playback occurs on the overview screen by tapping loops to cue them up.
For those who want to go a bit further, the app includes arrangement functionality (for composing entire songs), along with Ableton Link and MIDI export support. Auxy's therefore worth a look for relative newcomers to making music and also pros after a no-nonsense scratchpad.
The iPad is the perfect mobile device for composing music, with its fairly large display and powerful innards. This has resulted in a range of involved and impressive music-creation tools, such as Korg Gadget. Sometimes, though, you yearn for something simpler for making some noise.
This is where Figure comes in. Within seconds, you can craft thumping dance loops, comprising drum, bass and lead parts. The sounds are great, being based on developer Propellerhead Software's much-loved Reason. They can be manipulated, too, so your exported loops sound truly unique.
On an iPhone, music-making app GarageBand is mightily impressive, but on iPad, the extra space proves transformative. In being able to see more at any given time, your experience is more efficient and enjoyable, whether you’re a beginner tapping the grid view to trigger loops, a live musician tweaking a synth on stage, or a recording artist delving into audio waveforms and MIDI data.
Apple’s app also cleverly appeals to all. Newcomers can work with loops, automated drummers, and piano strips for always staying in key. Pros get seriously impressive track controls with configurable effects, multi-take recording, and Audio Unit support for bringing favorite synths directly into GarageBand.
If you don’t feel terribly creative sitting in front of a PC, GarageBand’s the perfect way to unleash your Grammy-winning songwriter in waiting.
Groovebox is a really clever app for anyone interested in making electronic music. The smartest bit is in the app being approachable for newcomers, yet offering power and features for seasoned noise makers.
The basics involve selecting a track type (drums, bass, or synth), and then a sound, whereupon Groovebox starts playing a loop. If you’re not happy with what you hear, tap the dice and Groovebox will spit out a different pattern.
Most apps of this ilk are samples-based, and so grind to a juddering halt at this point. But Groovebox goes further, offering a keyboard for live play, and a piano roll grid for tweaking a loop’s notes – or removing them all to add your own. You can also build up entire tracks using a ‘song sections’ feature.
The only major limitation of the free version is many advanced instrument controls sit behind IAP. Still, for no outlay, Groovebox offers plenty of head-nodding entertainment.
It’s fair to say that Music Memos is primarily designed for the iPhone, enabling musicians to quickly capture a song idea, which can later be expanded on. But if you’re in a studio – home or otherwise – strumming away on a guitar, and with an iPad nearby, the app can help you compose your next chart-troubler on a much more user-friendly screen size.
You kick things off by tapping a circle in the middle of the screen, whereupon Music Memos starts recording. Tap again to stop. The app then attempts – with some degree of success – to transcribe the chords played, and enables you to overlay automated bass and drums.
It’s when tapping the audio waveform in the recordings list that the iPad’s value becomes clear – you get the whole screen to see your in-progress song, which is great for playing along with or when considering further tweaks. And with iCloud sync, you can always record on iPhone and peruse later on iPad.
Podcasts are mostly associated with small portable devices - after all, the very name is a mash-up of 'iPod' and 'broadcast'. But that doesn't mean you should ignore your favourite shows when armed with an iPad rather than an iPhone.
We're big fans of Overcast on Apple's smaller devices, but the app makes good use of the iPad's extra screen space, with a smart two-column display. On the left, episodes are listed, and the current podcast loads into the larger space on the right.
The big plusses with Overcast, though, remain playback and podcast management. It's the one podcast app we've used that retains plenty of clarity when playback is sped up; and there are clever effects for removing dead air and boosting vocals in podcasts with lower production values.
Playlists can be straightforward in nature, or quite intricate, automatically boosting favourites to the top of the list, and excluding specific episodes. And if you do mostly use an iPhone for listening, Overcast automatically syncs your podcasts and progress, so you can always pick up where you left off.
There are quite a few DJ apps for iPad, but they mostly tend to make the assumption you’re a master of the decks already. With its bright colors, straightforward nature, and lack of a price tag, Pacemaker feels rather more approachable to the typical wannabe deck spinner.
You can mess about with demo tracks or load tunes from your iPhone and Spotify. Then it’s a case of messing around with virtual decks, sliders and buttons to crossfade, beat-match, and add effects. If you hit on something especially great, record your live performance and share it with your friends.
It’s worth noting the app does have IAP lurking, but that’s really only for people properly bitten by the bug. Splash out and you can grab new effects or a premium subscription for precision mixing. For free, though, there’s plenty to enjoy.
There are two ways to approach Seaquence, where the first is as a really bizarre interactive album. Select a track and a bunch of little creatures swim about on the screen, which results in spatialized sound mixes. (Stick some headphones on to hear how their movements affect the placement of sounds being played.) You can manually fling the creatures about, or tap-hold to remove them.
But Seaquence also enables you to edit. Add a new creature and it’ll instantly change the track. Tap a creature and you can delve into a scale editor, sound designer, and a sequencer for adjusting the notes of the current loop.
A $6.99/£6.99/AU$10.99 IAP opens up a bunch of pro features; but for free, Seaquence is entertaining whether you’re just listening and occasionally bothering the digital sea life, or figuring out how to construct your own tunes.
Beatwave is a grid synthesizer/sound toy, loosely based on Yamaha’s Tenori-on. This means you tap notes by turning on the grid’s lights. When the endlessly looping playhead collides with one, you get an explosion of color, and a sound plays.
Notes towards the top of the grid are higher, and those at the bottom are lower. Some instruments use the bottom two rows for drum sounds. Most importantly, though, Beatwave is designed to always make output listenable.
It’s actually quite difficult to create anything horribly discordant, short of filling every square on the grid.
For those who fancy more depth, the app offers plenty of alternate sounds, automated morphing, and the ability to save patterns to the sidebar, which you switch between with a tap. So it’s fun whether writing songs or just playing with sound and color.
The best free office and writing apps for iPadOur favorite free iPad apps for writing, email, spreadsheets, presentations and calculations.
LastPass in some ways echoes iCloud Keychain, in giving you a central repository for storing passwords and payment details. You might therefore wonder what the point is in using such a system.
First and foremost, LastPass is fully cross-platform, so if you also work with Windows and Android, it means you can take your passwords with you everywhere, securely. But there are other advantages, such as secure notes and form fill options, all of which seamlessly integrate with devices running iOS 12 or later.
There is a premium tier; US$24/£23/AU$38 per year adds sharing options, 1GB of encrypted file storage, and premium multi-factor authentication. For most users, though, the extremely generous free version should be enough.
Drafts 5 describes itself as the place where text starts. That might be a lofty claim on the iPad, given that Apple’s tablet has plenty of top-notch text editors, but Drafts has some pretty amazing tools to help you capture ideas faster and work on lengthy texts.
The main writing view gives you a live word count, and a custom keyboard row for quickly getting at useful formatting options and actions. Texts can be tagged for grouping and retrieval purposes, and the app includes a large range of actions for processing and exporting missives.
If you want to make your own custom actions you’re into subscription IAP territory, which also gives you custom workspaces, superior share extension options, URL automation, and themes. But even in its free incarnation, Drafts is extremely generous and a first-rate install.
Scanbot is a scanner with a sense of humor. No, you read that right – it starts off urging you to try a tutorial ‘challenge mode’. In AR, you chase documents around the floor, trying to scan them as quickly as possible.
All this has a point: teaching you how to best to position your iPad when scanning, and to showcase how streamlined Scanbot makes the process. Once the scan’s been done, you can adjust crop and contrast levels, append more pages, and upload the end result to a cloud service of your choice.
The app includes page size settings and integrates with iOS’s Shortcuts app. And if you upgrade to the pro version, you gain OCR text recognition, one-tap actions extraction for things like triggering phone calls, and robust document editing. But even if you stick with the free version, Scanbot’s an excellent choice.
Paper by FiftyThree originally invited you to sketch in virtual journals, but then dispensed with sketchbooks for a board of cards you could rearrange. This latest take tries to merge the two approaches.
The best bit of Paper – the actual sketching tools – remains intact. You scribble with pens, splash watercolors on the canvas, and draw geometric shapes that neatly retain the character of your stroke.
Beyond that, the app stumbles. Text appears as notes stuck over your work when browsing – an ugly effect – and only one image can be imported to each sketch, which you can either trace over or use as a background.
Still, despite its flaws, this is still an app worth installing, simply because it feels really great to use.
Adobe Acrobat Reader is a popular app on the desktop for viewing, annotating and signing PDFs. On iPad… well, it’s much the same, albeit with a reliance on cloud storage, and a nicely-designed touchscreen interface.
On importing a PDF from another app, Dropbox, or iCloud Drive, you can rearrange its pages, add a signature, slather the thing in comments, and highlight bits of text. If your document arrived from Adobe Scan, you can search the text, and select/copy some to paste elsewhere. Annoyingly, copying must be done manually – there’s no ‘grab all text’ option.
In the main, though, this is a friendly, usable app, and you get the bulk of its functionality for free, including the means to share edited PDFs with other apps. (IAP is mostly for converting PDFs to other formats for editing in the likes of Microsoft Word.)
A halfway house between full-fledged writing tool and capable note-taker, Bear provides a beautiful environment for tapping out words on an iPad.
The sidebar links to notes you’ve grouped by hashtag. Next to that, a notes list enables you to scroll through (or search) everything you’ve written, or notes matching a specific tag. The main workspace – which can be made full-screen – marries sleek minimalism with additional smarts: subtle Markdown syntax next to headings; automated to-do checkboxes when using certain characters; image integration.
There’s not enough here for pro writers – they’d need on-screen word counts, customizable note column ordering, and flexibility regarding notes nesting. Also, for iCloud sync, you must buy a $1.49/£1.49/AU$1.99 monthly subscription. But as a free, minimal note-taker for a single device, Bear more than fits the bill.
Dropbox is perhaps the most famous of cloud storage providers. For free, you get 2GB of space for your documents and photos – and more if you pay to upgrade.
In the early days of iPad, Apple wanted to hide the file system away, and Dropbox – which was quickly supported by a great many apps – became a kind of surrogate. And even in these days of iCloud Drive, it’s very much worth installing.
The main Dropbox app is smart and straightforward, with speedy previews, the means to save content offline, passcode lock functionality, and optional automated backup of your iPad photos.
As of iOS 11, Dropbox can integrate directly into the Files app, too. Given Dropbox’s cross-device and cross-platform nature, this makes it worth grabbing even if you only use it rarely. Chances are, though, you’ll use it a whole lot more often.
There are other decent cloud storage apps too, such as Google Drive, but even if you already have that it’s worth grabbing Dropbox for a little extra space.
Gmail brings Google’s email service to your iPad. Of course, Apple’s own Mail app does this to some extent – and supports sending and receiving from Gmail addresses. But the Gmail app provides a fuller experience.
One of the most vital is the ability to undo a send. You have to be quick, but it’s hugely useful to stop something being sent if you realize you’ve made an error, or forgotten to add an attachment.
Elsewhere, the app’s also in tune with Google’s way of doing things, and so you get profile pictures of people you’re conversing with, integration with Google Calendar, and excellent search capabilities.
Another possible reason to install: as a means to keep business and leisure fully separate, if you use Apple’s Mail for work, and Gmail for everything else.
There are loads of iPad apps for reading and annotating PDFs, but LiquidText is different. Rather than purely aping paper, the developers have thought about the advantages of working with virtual documents.
So while you still get a typical page view, you can pinch to collapse passages you're not interested in and also compare those that aren't adjacent.
There's a 'focus' view that shows only annotated sections, and you can even select chunks of text and drag them to the sidebar. Tap one of those cut-outs at a later point and its location will instantly be displayed in the main text. Smartly, you can save any document in the app's native format, export it as a PDF with comments, or share just the notes as an RTF.
With Numbers, Apple managed to do something with spreadsheets that had eluded Microsoft in decades of Excel development: they became pleasant (even fun) to work with.
Instead of forcing workmanlike grids of data on you, Numbers has you think in a more presentation-oriented fashion. Although you can still create tables for totting up figures, you’re also encouraged to be creative and reader-friendly regarding layout, incorporating graphs, imagery, and text. On iPad, it’s all tap - and finger - friendly, too.
With broad feature-parity with the Mac version, iCloud sync, and export to Excel format, Numbers should also fit neatly into most people’s workflow.
And although updates robbed the app of some friendliness (whoever removed the date picker needs a stern talking to), it still excels in that department, from nicely designed templates through to the handy action menu, ensuring common tasks are only ever a tap away.
PCalc Lite's existence means the lack of a built-in iPad calculator doesn't bother us. For anyone who wants a traditional calculator, it's pretty much ideal. The big buttons beg to be tapped, and the interface can be tweaked to your liking, by way of bolder and larger key text, alternate display digits, and stilling animation.
Beyond basic sums, PCalc Lite adds some conversions, which are categorised but also searchable. If you're hankering for more, IAP lets you bolt on a number of extras from the paid version of PCalc, such as additional themes, dozens more conversions, alternate calculator layouts, a virtual paper tape, and options for programmers and power users.
The best free photo and video editing apps for iPadOur favorite free iPad apps for editing photos, working with filters, adding text to photos and editing video.
Enlight Pixaloop wants photographs to get animated – in a literal sense. Load one up and you can draw paths to denote the direction of your flowing, looping animation, and use anchors and masks to make everything else stay put. The effect is like a cinemagraph, but you only need a single still, rather than a sequence of shots or a video.
On iPad, Pixaloop benefits from the larger screen, and the accuracy an Apple Pencil affords. You can create some seriously intricate and eye-dazzling effects, even from fairly mundane source material.
If you’re short on snaps, the app enables you to grab something from Pixabay. And when you’re done, you can export your work to video (although, alas, not animated GIF). It’s smart, sleek, and even though optional IAPs lurk, offers plenty of functionality for zero outlay.
Pic Collage is a powerful app for creating photo collages. You can start with a freeform canvas or a card template, but the pre-defined grids are better. Select some photos and a grid, and the app will automatically arrange everything.
Many apps stop there, but Pic Collage goes much further. You can tweak the frames, and perform adjustments on individual images. Movement can be added through importing up to three videos and later exporting your creation as a GIF. And if you’re feeling arty, you can scribble all over your grid-based masterpiece.
Pic Collage hits that sweet spot of unlocking creativity in an immediate, usable manner. You get results fast. The only real negative is exports have a watermark, but if that bugs you, they can be gone forever with a one-off US$1.99/£1.99/AU$2.99 IAP.
Plotaverse is an image editor and social network very much of the opinion that photographs are a bit rubbish unless they move.
The meat of the app is Plotagraph+, which provides tools for animating your pics. The process is simple: mask parts you want to remain static, and then drag arrows to denote movement. Plotagraph+ then does its thing, resulting in an endlessly looping animation.
Naturally, there are limitations. The system tends to work well with flowing subjects (such as water or clouds) and geometric patterns. Still, you can create amazing videos with a minimum of effort.
The social networking bit is less impressive, as are cheesy effects overlays (free and paid) that are available for download. But in bringing a touch of Harry Potter to even the most mundane of snaps, Plotaverse feels like a little piece of magic on your iPad.
Prisma invites you to be an artist – albeit an incredibly lazy artist who’s not against a touch of stylistic plagiarism. There’s no actual drawing or painting here – you instead load a photo (or take one using the app) and tap an effect to apply it. This effect can be strengthened or weakened by swiping across the canvas.
Rather than aping cameras and film types, Prisma is interested in traditional art – everything from classical to manga is fair game. You’ll need an internet connection to download and apply effects, but it doesn’t take long and you can remove any duds if your library starts to become cluttered.
You’re not going to turn that shot of your lunch into a forgotten Kandinsky with Prisma, but the app is capable of gorgeous painterly results. High-res output is locked behind an $1.99/£1.79/AU$2.99 monthly subscription, but SD output is fine for posting online.
Clips is a video editor designed for people who don’t want to spend a great deal of time editing – or even shooting. Unlike Apple’s iMovie, Clips is intended for impulsive shoots, and super-fast clip arrangement – a video editor for the social media generation.
On iPad, you might question its relevance. After all, you’re not going to whip out an iPad Pro to quickly shoot someone larking about on a skateboard. But the iPad’s larger screen is superb for editing, making it easy to rearrange clips on the timeline and get a proper eye for the many included filters.
There’s more lurking here too, including automatic animated subtitles, posters with customizable text and iCloud sync. Clips won’t make you a Hollywood legend, but it might just propel you towards Instagram stardom.
It's become apparent that Adobe - creators of photography and graphic design powerhouses Photoshop and Illustrator - don't see mobile devices as suitable for full projects. However, the company's been hard at work on a range of satellite apps, of which Photoshop Fix is perhaps the most impressive.
Built on Photoshop technology, this retouching tool boasts a number of high-end features for making considered edits to photographs. The Liquify tool in particular is terrific, enabling you to mangle images like clay, or more subtly adjust facial features using bespoke tools for manipulating mouths and eyes.
Elsewhere, you can smooth, heal, color and defocus a photo to your heart's content, before sending it to Photoshop on the desktop for further work, or flattening it for export to your Camera Roll. It's particularly good when used with the Apple Pencil (still a funny name) and the iPad Pro, such is the power and speed of that device and input method.
Making apps approachable is a good thing on mobile, but sometimes photo editors go a bit far, flinging all kinds of detritus into the mix (stickers; gaudy frames; a million indistinguishable filters).
With Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, you instead get a more sedate and distinctly professional offering – although one that nonetheless retains plenty of immediacy.
The basic toolset includes cropping, rotation, a bunch of measured and genuinely useful presets, and an editor for adjusting tones, vignettes, colors and lens issues. Edits aren’t burned in and so you can experiment and revert as you wish. When you’re done, you can send the result to your Camera Roll.
If you’re an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber, you also get DNG support, and selective adjustments. But even as a pure freebie, Lightroom’s a must-have for any iPad owner interested in improving their photographs.
There are loads of apps for making basic edits to photos and slapping on some words, but Little Moments stands out primarily through being rather jolly (if a little twee at times) and being extremely easy to use.
Load in a pic (or use the camera to shoot a new one), and you can quickly add a filter, adjust things like saturation and contrast, overlay some text boxes, and get creative with quotes and stickers.
Weirdly, the last two of those things are pixelated when browsing through the app, but look just fine when added (and sadly many of the categories also sit behind in-app purchases).
But everything else about Little Moments is a joy, from the non-destructive adjustments (unless you select a new filter, whereupon everything resets) to the friendly, intuitive interface.
The App Store's awash with alternate cameras with editing smarts, but MuseCam warrants a place on your iPad's home screen nonetheless. As a camera, it's fine, with an on-screen grid and plenty of manual settings. But on Apple's tablet, it's in editing that MuseCam excels.
Load a photo and you can apply a film-inspired filter preset (based on insight from pro photographers), or fiddle around with tone curves, color tools, and other adjustment settings.
The interface is bold, efficient, and usable, making it accessible to relative newcomers; but there's also enough depth here to please those wanting a bit more control, including the option to save tweaks as custom presets.
IAP comes in the form of additional filters, but what you get for free is generous and of a very high quality, making MuseCam a no-brainer download.
Although Photofy includes a decent range of tools for performing typical edits on photos - including adjustments, cropping, saturation, and the like - this app is more interested in helping you get properly creative.
Within the photo editing tools are options for adding in-vogue blurs and producing collages; and in 'Text & Overlays', you'll find a wealth of options for slapping all kinds of artwork and text on top of your photographic masterpieces.
The interface works well through bold, tappable buttons and chunky sliders (although it takes a while to realise the pane containing the latter can be scrolled). And although some filters and stickers require IAP to unlock, there's loads available here entirely for free. (Also, Photofy rather pleasingly gives you alternatives for its watermark, if you don't want to pay to remove it, but aren't too keen on the default. Nice.)
Formerly known as Replay, Quik is a video editor primarily designed for people who can't be bothered doing the editing bit. You select photos and videos, pick a theme, and sit back as Quik pieces together a masterpiece that can subsequently be saved and shared.
For tinkerers, there are styles and settings to tweak. Post-Replay, the app offers its 28 varied styles for free, and you can delve into the edit itself, trimming clips, reordering media, adjusting focal points, and adding titles.
Alternatively, the really lazy can do nothing at all and still get results - every week, Quik will serve up highlights videos, enabling you to relive favorite moments. These videos are quite random in nature, but are nonetheless often a nice surprise. Still, anyone willing to put in the slightest additional effort will find Quik rewards any minutes invested many times over.
Apple's Photos app has editing capabilities, but they're not terribly exciting — especially when compared to Snapseed. Here, you select from a number of from a number of tools and filters, and proceed to pinch and swipe your way to a transformed image. You get all the basics — cropping, rotation, healing brushes, and the like — but the filters are where you can get really creative.
There are blurs, photographic effects, and more extreme options like 'grunge' and 'grainy film', which can add plenty of atmosphere to your photographs. The vast majority of effects are tweakable, mostly by dragging up and down on the canvas to select a parameter and then horizontally to adjust its strength.
Brilliantly, the app also records applied effects as separate layers, each of which remains fully editable until you decide to save your image and work on something else.
The best free productivity apps for iPadOur favorite free iPad apps for being more productive with cloud storage, timers, iPad keyboards, automation and more.
Shortcuts is Apple’s revamp of automation utility Workflow. Its main goal is to save you time by performing complex tasks with simple interactions (such as a button tap), rather than going through a list of steps manually in multiple apps and websites.
There are two ways to approach Shortcuts. The first is to delve into the gallery’s dozens of premade actions. These include everything from calculating tips to saving documents as PDFs. Everything you download can be experimented with, or you can start from scratch and construct your own workflows in the user-friendly drag-and-drop interface.
This proves particularly effective on the iPad’s larger display, which gives you plenty of room to work. And this latest revamp makes workflows even easier to access, because you can trigger them using Siri voice commands.
Cheatsheet Widget is a notes app for all those little things that you need to remember – but never do. Its items are designed to be quick, glanceable fare (like phone numbers, codes and combinations and a few words) and are made easier to spot by twinning them with icons.
Your list is created in the Cheatsheet Widget app, but the list can also be displayed as a Today view widget. Items within the widget can be deleted, or their content copied to the clipboard – ideal for things like open network passwords.
For free, the widget will display four items from your list, and you can opt to always place new ones at the top. As of iOS 12, there’s a dark mode; and if you splash out on the one-off IAP, you also get iCloud cross-device sync, a Cheatsheet Widget keyboard, and no ads.
Bundler is a boon to anyone who regularly finds themselves having to collect a selection of files that then need to be sent elsewhere – a common task in many kinds of workplace.
Documents are added to ‘bundles’ using the Share sheet. In any compatible app, you share selected documents (or the current one) to Bundler and choose which bundle to place them in (or make a new one). On returning to Bundler, these documents can then be previewed and renamed. (In the latter case, ensuring your files have suffixes – JPG, TXT, and so on – is a good bet, or they aren’t always included on export.)
Sharing a bundle sends it to a location or app of your choosing as a ZIP archive. The process is sleek and simple, and the dual-pane view on iPad makes things even easier when you’re juggling a large number of files and bundles.
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser is a browser designed to make the internet less creepy, preventing websites following you around the web. It blocks every hidden tracker it can find, uses the privacy-oriented DuckDuckGo for search, and rates websites you visit in terms of how much they care about your privacy.
It’s a combination of educational aid and web browser, and the latter bit isn’t half bad. It’’s a bit stripped-back compared to Safari, but you can still bookmark sites, open pages in tabs, and share content with other people. When you’re done, you can nuke your session’s search history with two taps.
Even if it doesn’t become your primary browser, DuckDuckGo is worth installing. It’s ideal for browsing sensitive data such as financial and medical records, safe in the knowledge you’re not being tracked by nefarious scripts.
In a sense Evernote is an online back-up for fleeting thoughts and ideas. You use it to save whatever comes to mind — text documents and snippets, notes, images, web clips, and even audio. These can then be accessed from a huge number of devices. (We suspect any day now, Evernote will unveil its ZX Spectrum app.)
The app itself could be friendlier, and there's a tendency towards clutter. But navigation of your stored bits and pieces is simple enough, and the sheer ubiquity and reliability of Evernote makes it worthy of investigation and a place on your Home screen.
The web’s pretty great, apart from the bits that aren’t. And those bits are the manner in which your journey online is monitored by countless trackers. They look into what you’re viewing and where you’re going, aiming to serve up targeted ads. Beyond privacy issues, these trackers can slow down web pages and even crash browsers.
Enter: Firefox Focus. The app itself is a brutally stripped-back, privacy-oriented browser. You go online, tracker-free, do whatever you want, and then stab Erase to delete your session. Which probably sounds ideal for nefarious purposes, but this is mostly great for basic efficiency, and also handy if someone wants to quickly get online using your iPad but not leave their accounts live when handing your device back.
Beyond this, Firefox Focus can also integrate with Safari, blocking trackers and web fonts from that browser and, potentially, increasing its performance.
Given the acres of space you get on an iPad display, it’s a bit odd that Apple’s own clock only provides a single timer. Fortunately, MultiTimer – as its name suggests – goes somewhat further by offering multiple options.
In fact, depending on the layout you choose, you can have twelve timers all ticking away at once. Each one of them can have its own icon, color and default time assigned, for those people who need to simultaneously exercise, boil eggs, and cook a turkey.
Smartly, the app works in portrait or landscape, and if you want a timer you can see clearly across the room, a single button press zooms it to fill almost the entire screen.
Should you want a bit more flexibility by way of multiple or custom workspaces, there’s a single IAP to unlock those features.
We're not sure whether Slack is an amazing aid to productivity or some kind of time vampire. Probably a bit of both. What we do know is that the real-time messaging system is excellent in a work environment for chatting with colleagues (publicly and privately), sharing and previewing files, and organising discussions by topic.
There's smart integration with online services, and support for both the iPad Pro and the iPad's Split View function.
Note that although Slack is clearly designed with businesses in mind, it also works perfectly well as a means of communicating with friends if you don't fancy lobbing all your worldly wisdom into Facebook's maw.
There are plenty of apps for doodling on your iPad, but Thoughts differentiates itself by going for a kind of razor-sharp minimalism that’s vanishingly rare these days.
On creating a new document, you can draw with a finger, and resize the canvas with a pinch. There’s also an eraser, a small palette to change colors, an interesting night mode (which flips black to white) and that’s pretty much it.
It sounds reductive, but in reality frees you up. You’re not thinking about line thicknesses and the like – you’re just drawing. Export is a little disappointing – it would be good if you could have a vector format rather than a fairly low-res bitmap – but otherwise Thoughts is a nicely simple sketching tool for iPad.
VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) are becoming very popular, due to issues people increasingly face when browsing the web. A VPN can be used to circumvent region-blocking/censorship and security issues on public Wi-Fi. Such services can baffle people who aren't technically adept, but TunnelBear is all about the friendlier side of VPNs. With bears.
After installing the app and profile, you'll have 500 MB of data per month to play with. That said, TunnelBear’s exclusive TechRadar plan offers a far more generous 5GB, 10 times the amount you get if you sign elsewhere.
Tunnelling to a specific location is simply a case of tapping it on the map and waiting a few seconds for the bear to pop out of the ground.
Tweet about the product and you'll get an extra free GB. Alternatively, monthly and annual paid plans exist for heavier data users.
The best free travel and weather apps for iPadOur favorite free iPad apps for planning a holiday, currency conversion, weather forecasts and mapping.
Today Weather is weather forecasting aimed at iPad owners with an eye for style. Launch the app and it displays a photo to represent the current weather in your location. Below that, you’ll see a brief overview of current conditions. Scroll and you get an extended forecast and further details (including rainfall, air quality and wind speed), all rendered in almost painfully cool neon tones atop a dark background.
If the photo’s a bit much, you can get rid of it. Either way, this is a great weather app for a docked iPad, and even the sole ad can easily enough be scrolled off-screen. Neatly, there’s also something for when forecasts don’t quite gel with your own observations: if you don’t get on with Today Weather’s data source, you can switch it for Dark Sky, Accuweather.com, or YR.no.
Google Earth is about exploring our planet. Search for somewhere specific and the app swoops and dives to its target. Important landmarks are rendered in 3D that’s surprisingly effective – if you don’t zoom in too far.
This is an entertaining, tactile app that encourages investigation. You can drag and spin the screen, and flick through cards that point towards local landmarks. Fancy looking at something new? Hit the random button, or tap on the Voyager icon for stories based around anything from UNESCO World Heritage Sights to trekking about Kennedy Space Center.
The app is effortless to use, and the iPad’s large screen enables you to more fully breathe in the sights; the result is armchair tourism that’s far more effective than what you’d get even on the largest of iPhones.
Google Maps is an app that might seem an odd fit for an iPad, but we’d argue it’s an essential install. First and foremost, it’s much better than Apple’s Maps for figuring out journeys: Google Maps can more easily find points of interest, and ably deals with public transport information.
Local areas can be explored in terms of amenities (food, drink, and sometimes entertainment), and in a more direct sense, with the road-level Street View. The latter is a great way to familiarize yourself with a place before you visit.
If you always have your iPad on you, Google Maps can save maps for offline use as well, so you don’t even need an internet connection to use it. Alternatively, sign up for a Google account, and the searches you make will be synced with the app on your iPhone.
There are two things a good flight comparison apps needs to be: easy to use, and useful results. Broadly speaking, Momondo ably does the job in both cases.
Looking for flights is simple; the app allows a pleasing amount of vagueness regarding locations (including regions with multiple airports, such as ‘London’, or even entire countries, such as ‘New Zealand’), and it’ll happily enable you to search for singles, returns, or multi-city jaunts.
As search results gradually load in, the app points you to the cheapest and quickest options, along with what it considers ‘best’ when taking into account price, time and convenience. For some routes, a calendar graph lets you check nearby dates to see if you can snag a bargain.
Additional filters are available to further refine your results, and you can create an account to save favorites and receive fare alerts - plus hotel listing can be added in too, should you want a more comprehensive.
Townske seems to bill itself as an app akin to Foursquare – a place to find the best local cafes, restaurants, and sights in major cities. But really it’s more of a place where photo-bloggers can publish their unique take on amazing locations, thereby providing you with gorgeous photos and succinct chunks of writing to devour.
You can jump right into the main feed, or focus on a specific city. You then tap on a photo to open an individual story. Every one we tried was rich in superb imagery, with just enough text to add meaningful context without interrupting the flow of the visuals.
Neatly, you can tap a map icon to see where the various photos were all taken; and if you sign up for an account, favorite stories or individual images can be bookmarked for later. But even if you simply treat Townske as a regularly-updated lean-back digital take on a newspaper travel supplement, you can’t really go wrong.
With a native weather app bafflingly absent from iPad, you need to venture to the App Store to get anything beyond the basic daily overview Notification Center provides. Weather Underground is the best freebie on the platform, offering a customizable view to satisfy even the most ardent weather geeks.
Current conditions are shown at the top, outlining the temperature, precipitation likelihood, and a local map. But scroll and you can delve into detailed forecasts, dew point readings, sunrise and sunset times, videos, webcams, health data and web links. The bulk of the tiles can be disabled if there are some you don't use, and most can be reordered to suit.
Although not making the best use of iPad in landscape, the extra screen space afforded by Apple's tablet makes the Weather Underground experience a little more usable than on iPhone, enabling faster access to tiles. And for free, it's a top-notch app, although you can also fling $1.99/£1.99/AU$2.99 at it annually if you want rid of the unobtrusive ads.
XE Currency is a currency converter that’s far from the prettiest of its kind – but it is useful and has all the right features.
Initially, it lists a few currencies, with the base one at the top. Tap an item in the list to select it as the new base currency; you can also adjust the base figure – tap on the number, and then enter something new in the calculator. The list of currencies can be changed at any point, and an item’s position adjusted by tap-holding and dragging it.
Beyond that, you can analyze rates, by punching in an alternate exchange rate, view graphs that outline rates for a pair of currencies over the past decade, and sign up to free rate alerts, which notify you when specific points are hit.
Now check out the best paid iPad apps
OnePlus 6T McLaren edition could have 10GB of RAM and 256GB of storage
Earlier this week OnePlus teased us with the announcement that is was teaming up with performance car maker McLaren for a launch on December 11, and leaks pointing to a OnePlus 6T McLaren edition have now surfaced.
According to sources who spoke to MySmartPrice, the rumored handset will apparently come with a huge 10GB of RAM and sizable 256GB of storage.
To date, the top-end OnePlus 6T variant packs in 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, so if the leaked specs are accurate, the amount of RAM would not only be a first for the firm, but also a world first in a phone make it one of the first phones in the world to offer it, after Xiaomi launched the Mi Mix 3 last month (hat tip: Ian S).
The planned December 11 launch event is called 'Salute to Speed', so a rumor suggesting we'll see a handset with 10GB of RAM isn't overly surprising - however we do question whether it's really necessary.
Loads of RAM, but is it needed?While increasing RAM improves multi-tasking, heavy lifting tasks and helps devices avoid performance bottlenecks, smartphones do have an upper limit of how much they can do.
Some of the best performing smartphones from 2018 pack just 4GB of RAM (handsets such as the iPhone XS, XS Max, Google Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL and Samsung Galaxy S9) and our in-depth reviews of these handsets show there are no obvious performance flaws.
The likes of the Galaxy S9 Plus (6GB) and Galaxy Note 9 (8GB) do pack in more RAM, but still only Xiaomi has hit the 10GB mark to date.
With 4GB still so common in flagship devices, it feels that if OnePlus was to speed ahead with 10GB in the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition, it may not make a noticeable difference on-screen.
And if the 10GB of RAM is going to be a key selling point for a handset which will likely cost more than OnePlus' currently top-end $629 / £579 handset (as we've seen with the prices for the Porsche and Lamborghini special editions from Huawei and Oppo respectively) it may be difficult to justify.
Of course, this latest rumor needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, as nothing is official just yet - although it is one of the more believable leaks we've seen.
OnePlus teams up with McLaren, likely for a limited-edition phone
Oppo plans to announce a foldable phone early next year
Yet another foldable phone is on the way, and this time it's set to come from Chinese manufacturer Oppo.
The company confirmed the device in an interview with Dutch website Tweakers and said that we'll hear all about it early next year.
Chuck Wang, product manager at Oppo, specifically said the device would be unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2019. That's set to take place from February 25-28.
Many manufacturers announce devices in the couple of days leading up to the event, so it may be just before the actual MWC show that we hear from Oppo on its first foldable device.
Early next yearThe interview didn't unveil any specifics about the device, and Wang didn't confirm when Oppo plans to put the phone on sale to the public. Oppo may follow a similar schedule to Samsung's foldable phone, where it announced the device on stage but it won't be available to the public for some time.
Huawei and LG have also both suggested foldable phones are in the pipeline, but it's good to get a hard and fast date of when Oppo will reveal its experiments with foldable phones.
The interview also revealed the company wants a 5G Oppo phone released in Europe in the first half of 2019. That suggests the foldable phone won't be 5G compatible.
If that wasn't enough, Wang also confirmed the company is planning to release a device that places a camera behind the screen. It's likely a pinhole cutout in the display will be how the company achieves this, but we apparently won't hear any more about that until 2020 at the earliest.
The fact the company is coming to Barcelona, Spain to announce a foldable phone suggests that Oppo will be bringing that device to market outside of China. That said, we won't know anything for sure until MWC early next year.
Our review of the Oppo Find X
Leaked Nokia 8.1 marketing materials reveal the phone in full
With everything from the Nokia 1 to the Nokia 8 Sirocco launching it has been a busy year for HMD Global (the company behind the revived Nokia brand). But there’s still seemingly at least one more phone to come, one that we now possibly know all the details of.
Leaked marketing materials (shared by NokiaPowerUser) for a phone codenamed ‘Phoenix’ but rumored to be launching as the Nokia 8.1 reveal the specs and design of the handset.
But if you’ve been paying attention to Chinese phone launches then this might be familiar, as it appears to be a renamed version of the Nokia X7 (a phone that recently launched in China).
That means you’re getting a phone with a bezel below the screen and a notch at the top, while there’s a fingerprint scanner and dual-lens camera on the rear. Those camera lenses are 12MP and 13MP, while the screen is a 6.18-inch 1080 x 2246 one with a 19:9 aspect ratio.
As mid-range as you'd expectThe Nokia 8.1, as listed here, also has a 20MP front-facing camera, a mid-range Snapdragon 710 chipset, 4GB or 6GB of RAM, 64GB or 128GB of internal storage, and a 3,500mAh battery which apparently offers up to two days of life. The phone supposedly comes in red, silver or blue and runs Android 9 Pie.
While these leaked materials don’t hint at a launch date, the fact they exist and that the phone has already launched elsewhere as the Nokia X7 suggests it’s coming very soon.
Indeed, HMD Global is holding an event in Dubai on December 5, so there’s a very high chance that the Nokia 8.1 will show up there, possibly alongside other handsets.
The Nokia 9 might launch at the same timeVia PocketNow
Instagram now has photo descriptions for the visually impaired
Instagram has announced two new features focused on accessibility for people with visual impairments, meaning that more people than ever can enjoy the popular photo sharing app.
Both features are designed to enable 'screen readers' (a kind of assistive technology that can convert text to speech) to describe the content of images to users with visual impairments.
The first feature requires users of the app to add detailed descriptions of their photos in a new 'Alt Text' field when they are uploading them, which can then be read out loud to anyone using a screen reader.
In a tweet, Instagram demonstrated how you can enable this feature when you come to uploading your photos:
Object recognitionThe second way that Instagram is enabling screen readers to vocalize the content of photos is through object recognition technology, which allows the app to identify different aspects of a photograph.
This is then conveyed to the user's screen reader, which can then describe the image out loud.
Instagram's support for screen reader technology could be a make the app far more accessible to people with visual impairments, but it's not the first time that social media platforms have used object recognition to enable screen readers to describe photos.
In 2016, Facebook announced a similar feature, which dictates "a list of items a photo may contain" as users swipe from picture to picture within the app.
In a blog post Facebook said: "While this technology is still nascent, tapping its current capabilities to describe photos is an important step toward providing out visually impaired community the same benefits and enjoyment that everyone else gets from photos."
Although the success of the new Instagram feature is yet to be determined at this early stage, it does signify an increased awareness of the needs of differently-abled users, as well as a wider effort to make technology accessible to all.
Instagram's next project is a standalone shopping app
Top Tech Conferences: The Ultimate B2B tech events and show guide for 2018
For information about adding your event to this list and featured listing opportunities please contact mike.moore@futurenet.com.
Love it or loathe it, events and conferences are often where wheelers and dealers in the world of technology meet to decide on the future of the industry.
Ironically, technology itself has accelerate the demise of some massive tech events (like Comdex) but the result is that the remaining ones are more focused, alive and bustling than ever before.
TechRadar Pro and ITProPortal have joined forces with the tech B2B PR industry to curate a list of national and international technology events, conferences and happenings.
December 4th-6th, Vienna
One of the biggest ICT conferences in Europe, this research and innovation event will focus on the European Union’s priorities in the digital transformation of society and industry. It is an opportunity for the people involved in this transformation to share their experience and vision of Europe in the digital age.
Why attend: Get the lowdown on the EU’s digital priorities now and moving forward. As well as the chance to meet key players in the EC, you’ll get the opportunity to network with more than 6,000 conference participants from 91 countries worldwide.
December 12th-15th, Basel, Switzerland
Developers, vendors, enterprise end-users, and enthusiasts of business blockchain technologies will converge in Basel, Switzerland December 12–15, 2018 for the inaugural Hyperledger Global Forum.
Why attend? The first two days will feature a forum with keynotes, breakout sessions and a technical showcase. The following two days will feature hands-on tutorials, and workshop events, with the week culminating in a hackathon.
January 8th- 11th 2019, Las Vegas, USA
For 50 years, CES has been the launch pad for new innovation and technology that has changed the world. Held in Las Vegas every year, it is the world’s gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies and where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace.
Why attend? More than 3800 of the biggest tech firms exhibiting.
January 24th-27th, London
Bett is the first industry show of the year in the education technology landscape, bringing together the global education community to celebrate, find inspiration and discuss the future of education, as well as the role technology and innovation plays in enabling all educators and learners to thrive.
Why attend? Over 850 leading companies, 103 exciting new edtech start ups and over 34,700 attendees (131 countries represented) will all be present.
February 25th - 28th Barcelona
The world's biggest mobile trade show marks another year in Barcelona with a stellar line-up of speakers and exhibitors.
Why attend? Over 2,300 exhibitors will gather in Barcelona to showcase the newest technologies and most innovative products available. Take your place among the companies that are shaping the connected future.
March 4th-8th, San Francisco
RSA Conference 2019returns to San Francisco - take this opportunity to learn about new approaches to info security, discover the latest technology and interact with top security leaders and pioneers.
Why attend? Hands-on sessions, keynotes and informal gatherings allow you to tap into a smart, forward-thinking global community that will inspire and empower you.
April 16th & 17th, Dublin
Building world-class software products is hard. At INDUSTRY you will see how others manage product in different environments, from fast-paced startups to complex large enterprises.
Why attend? Over 3 days, 400 attendees from over 30 countries will learn from renowned product leaders and share the latest methods, tools, and frameworks that they use to build, launch and scale world-class software products.
May 1st-2nd, London
Now in its eighth year, over two days visitors to Accountex will have the opportunity to gain insights from over 250 top exhibitors and immerse themselves in accounting expertise with a programme of over 250 keynotes and seminars delivered by leading industry experts.
Why attend? Following a record-breaking attendance of almost 8,000 visitors at last year’s show, Accountex will be taking it up a level for 2019 with 10% more floor space, giving exhibiting companies even more room to showcase their latest accounting innovations.
May 14th-15th, Berlin
Innovative strategies, forward-looking developments and new perspectives in dealing with complex data centers are the topics of OSDC.
Why attend? The international conference is especially adapted to experienced administrators and architects. Get in touch with international OS-experts. Benefit from their comprehensive experience, learn about the current developments and gain the latest know-how for your daily practice.
October 6th-10th, 2019
Join attendees from 120+ countries and global media outlets in unpacking the big conversations and latest solutions around AI, blockchain, robotics, cloud and other mega trends.
Why attend? GITEX takes you on a multi-sensory experience of Future Urbanism across 21 halls with 4,000 exhibitors across 24 sectors.
Comments
Post a Comment