IOS

January 19 2018

Choosing the Right Amount of Smartphone Storage

IOS, Latest News android, apple, google, Mobile

One of the situations we see far too often these days is when a user runs out of storage for their data. With digital photos and videos being taken at ever-higher qualities and resolutions, it’s most commonly a case where a person’s camera habits fill up their phone’s space. Even when that isn’t an issue, it’s very easy to simply install too many apps, buy too many movies, or have too many songs – and you’re back in the same predicament. It’s important to consider how much storage you should be looking for depending on your habits, and what types of storage options may fit your case best.

When it comes to smartphones, many of the major manufacturers have thankfully begun to increase the storage available in the base models of their flagships – which are the models most people purchase without a second thought. Even Apple, one of the longest holdouts, increased the storage on their base model iPhone to 32 GB with the iPhone 7. Major Android phones such as the Google Pixel or LG G6 also offer a base storage of 32 GB, or in the case of the Samsung Galaxy S8 or iPhone 8, a hefty 64 GB. To put things in perspective, during the days in which most phones were coming out with 16 GB of storage as the standard, between a quarter and a third of that was already occupied by the manufacturer’s default software straight out of the box. Factor in an HD movie or two, never-mind any apps, games, music, or photos – and you were already out of space. A few phones supported the option of expanding the storage with a Micro SD memory card, but most often the phones that needed this functionality most didn’t have it, and many of those that did went unutilized as people were not aware of the capability.

That brings us to the question – how much storage should you be looking for in a phone? Everyone uses their phone a little differently, so we will be going over a few scenarios we see most commonly…

iphone, smartphone image

If you’re the type of person who uses your smartphone strictly for phone calls, or you find yourself mainly browsing the web or checking your email, then look no further than the base offering of storage; none of these functionalities take up or benefit from having a lot of space, so you can feel free to save your money and go for the 16 or 32 GB options. Especially with the 32 GB option, even if you find yourself taking the occasional picture or video to share on social media, you should still be covered – just remember that even relatively infrequent usage can really add up over the two years or so that most people have their phones.

For those who find themselves reaching for the camera app more often than not, or those simply looking to watch movies or store large music libraries on their devices, it can be especially valuable to get extra storage. If you travel frequently, or simply love taking photos and videos, then a 32 GB option is probably a little too lacking for your needs. For these cases, a 64 GB option (or possibly even a 128) could make or break your camera or entertainment habits – especially with how much higher the quality (and thus storage needs) pictures, videos, and music have gotten. Considering many movies use up a few Gigabytes per hour of video at even lower qualities, it can be very easy to run out of space quickly. Items like individual photos or songs may not use up much space on their own, but when many people have thousands or even tens of thousands of such files, the impact can become apparent fairly quickly.

For more than a few out there, their smartphone has become their primary computer – they do nearly all their work, store much of their information, and organize much of their life with it. Some have a collection of data the likes of which dwarf even the previous scenario, and much of the time, they have an app list several pages long. We all know at least a couple people who fit this description, and who are always looking to expand their phone’s functionality with this app or that. For those people, the models with the largest storage available should be a consideration. In the case of many phones, the top models max out around 128 or 256 GB – more than sufficient for most of even the heaviest storage needs.

Finally, for all the cases listed above, it’s worth mentioning that your phone’s internal storage doesn’t need to (and shouldn’t) be the only form of storage your phone has access to. Cloud storage is ever popular among users of both iOS and Android devices alike, since it’s whole purpose is to be “available anywhere” that you have an internet connection. Getting a healthy amount of storage from Google’s Google Drive or Apple’s iCloud can not only ensure your data is safe in the event of damage or loss of your current phone, but can also help ease the transition from an old phone to a new phone when upgrading. Most plans are fairly inexpensive for an ample amount of space, to boot. Beyond this, both Google and Apple have been finding new ways to address the space problem in their phones by leveraging cloud storage as a means to take some of the burden of some of the most common files, such as photos and videos, off the devices themselves. iCloud and Google Photos, for example, can store the original, highest quality shots in the cloud and delete or store only a low-quality version that takes up less space on the phone itself, thus allowing you to view the original quality image on demand without having to sacrifice the space to accommodate it.

Many people today would find themselves lost without their smartphones, and a few practically run their whole lives with them. When two years have passed, it can be very easy to go to your cell carrier or local electronics store and simply pick up the first familiar option you see – but you should stop and think about it, first. Ask yourself questions: do you fit any of the scenarios above? How much space does your current phone have? Is it at its limit or have you barely scratched the surface? Depending on your answer, the question of which model is right for you can change. Even if you’re not sure how to check, this question should be one of the first you ask – most technicians can do so pretty quickly. As always, whether you’re stuck with a phone that’s almost full, or are simply trying to pick out a new one, RGB Computer Solutions is here should you ever need help or advice.

July 6 2017

Safe Driving Apps: How Smarter Apps Can Help Keep Your Family Safe on the Road

IOS, Latest News android

When we think of smartphones and driving, the first image that unavoidably comes to mind is that of someone texting while driving. We’ve all seen it happen, and even the law agrees that it is a tremendous risk – any cell phone use, even besides texting, is illegal for young drivers. Even with this fact however, the distractions and bad habits still seem to get the better of many – even following the law’s entry into practice, we continue to hear about terrible and preventative accidents all the time. Fortunately, there are plenty of countermeasures and software dedicated to assisting parents with promoting safe driving habits for their children.

Many of these apps give users a good number of options for monitoring, safeguarding, and promoting good driving habits.

The first option is one of more basic utility, and also one many people even besides young drivers could benefit from. Most Android phones include a “Driving Mode” function, and iPhones, too have a Do Not Disturb driving mode. Although the functionality varies from phone to phone, most devices at least allow you to auto-reject incoming calls and texts with a configurable message to keep distractions to a minimum.

Drivesafe.ly is an app designed to mitigate the issue of texting, specifically, when you’re on the road. This app combines an intelligent text-to-speech functionality with a handy auto-responder to keep you or your child from having to pick up the phone and interact with it to read a text message. It reads the inbound text message aloud to the driver either via the phone’s speaker or (if you have a vehicle equipped with this) a bluetooth hands-free system. Users can even set a response to be automatically sent out upon receipt to the sender with a configurable message, removing the need to reply.

Another app which comes with even more utility is TrueMotion Family. This app is for more advanced users, but it comes with a fairly hefty sum of features. Not only does it allow users to see where their family members are, it also allows them to see how they got there. Additionally, it tracks whether the phone was used to text or call while driving, even going so far as to track instances of speeding. It rates drivers based on these factors, and provides valuable insight into where even experienced drivers can improve.

For either experienced drivers or the inexperienced, distracted driving can be a very real problem – especially when they’re the ones doing it. Whether you find yourself tempted to look at a text when you’re driving, or you’re simply picking up a phone call, it can be helpful to have some assistance in avoiding dangerous driving habits. As always, if assistance is ever needed in choosing the right solution to fit your needs, we at RGB Computer Solutions are here to help.

October 26 2016

Backing Up Your Smartphone: How to Do It and Why You Should

IOS, iPad, Latest News android, cloud storage, google

Many people – myself included, often take for granted that their pictures, videos, music, and other information will be there every time they look. We’ve already gone over (rather exhaustively, I might add) how important it can be to back up your computers, and the myriad ways in which you can go about it. However, so many more people are starting to ignore this vital practice on the computers that, ironically, they carry around with them every day.

I’m talking, of course, about your smartphone – those small, fragile devices that most people drop or break sometimes several times a year. Those devices that many of us use so often and rely on for so much. Their functions and capabilities vary of course, but we all use them for a purpose – it could be for your ever-growing picture collection, or that music library you keep yourself working away with at the gym, or that Email server you coordinate with team members at work through. Whatever your use of it entails, your smartphone can be essential to your daily activities – so why take the chance that it will keep working forever, when it’s just one slip out of your hand away from potential destruction? Whether on the train, a bus, at the workplace, or even at home, none of us can deny seeing this plenty of times…

Thankfully, no matter what kind of smartphone you use, part of the virtue of it being “Smart” is that they are all capable of saving their information elsewhere if necessary, should the worst come to pass. The options available differ depending on what platform you use, and sometimes even depending on what version of either Android or iOS you’re running, so we’ll be keeping this as general as possible in terms of what methods should be available to most.

Before you can decide on which methods to go with, it’s helpful to know which operating system you’re working with. If your phone is made by Samsung, LG, Google, Motorola, HTC, or Huawei, you are running Android – if your phone is made by Apple, you are running iOS. Also, due to the now-ubiquitous nature of mobile operating systems, the same process for phones also holds true for tablets.

iOS Backups

Definitely one of the strengths of iOS as a whole is the relative ease-of-use – and in this respect, backing up your device can be just as simple. The two primary methods of backing up iOS are via iCloud and iTunes.

iCloud, especially in newer versions of iOS, is recommended quite extensively by Apple as the go-to backup solution for iDevices, and most of these devices will actually recommend signing into iCloud with your Apple ID during setup. iCloud is capable of backing up Contacts, Email, Calendar Events, Photos, and other information from any of your devices, however it’s limited to 5 GB of storage unless you purchase a subscription for more space. This means that, for most people who take a large number of pictures or videos, this space will be very rapidly expended for the use of their picture or video libraries.

For those that have been with Apple since the early iPod days, it’s easy to remember that the ONLY way to backup or add information to any of your devices used to be exclusively through iTunes. The ability to download updates, apps, music, or other information over-the-air is a relatively new function, and even as recently as in the early days of the first iPads, the primary method for adding anything to your device was by means of an iTunes sync. In that respect, iTunes has never lost that functionality, and any Mac or PC running iTunes can save complete backups of your devices, which are only limited by the (usually) relatively massive space of said computers’ hard drives. In some cases, iTunes can even be configured to backup your devices through your house’s wireless network while both your computer and your iDevices are online and plugged in.

Either method is effective in saving most of your information cleanly and efficiently, however the information stored is often not readily decipherable, and can be somewhat vague; it can be difficult to tell or control exactly what gets backed up, and saving information from certain third party apps can be effectively impossible. However, for the vast majority of users, storing important information safely is relatively easy.

Android Backups

Where iOS excels in simplicity and ease-of-use, Android’s strengths most certainly lie in its fine-tuned controls, customizability, and openness. In that regard, nearly any information stored on an Android device can be accessed directly and stored elsewhere. The main methods of backing up an Android device, however, are through your Google account and through Google Photos.

When setting up a new Android device, it is most highly recommended to set up a Google account for use with the phone, similarly to how Apple devices require an Apple ID. If you have an existing account or login through any of Google’s existing platforms, such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, or Youtube (to name a few), you can simply use that account for your new device. In this way, your Email, Contacts, Calendars, and Settings will be preserved in the event of your device being damaged or replaced. What this function can store is effectively unlimited, however the storage method for photos and videos is somewhat different.

When it comes to media, Google Photos is the method of choice for many Android users. Google Photos is tied into the more over-arching “Google Drive”, which is Google’s cloud storage platform. We’ve gone over comparisons of the different platforms in the past, and this one gives 15 GB of storage for free, which is shared among your other Google services, such as Gmail and Google Docs. However, in most cases, Documents and Emails take up relatively little space, so most of the storage area should be available for use with pictures and video. But by far the best thing to understand about Google Photos is the fact that it can save most photos and videos without counting against your storage usage. As we explained in our aforementioned Cloud comparison, any pictures at or below the resolution of 16 Megapixels will not count against you, and the same holds true for videos recorded at or below Full HD 1080p. In the case of most phones, your camera is probably incapable of even exceeding this image resolution, and most people do not record videos higher than 1080p due to the massive space requirements associated with recordings at Quad HD 1440p or 4K / Ultra HD 2160p.

If all else fails, or you use your phone for other purposes, you can always backup specific folders or files to Google Drive directly, or simply store the phone’s contents on your PC or Mac. In most cases, Android Phones can be connected to a trusted computer and viewed as if they were nothing more than a flash drive, making their contents easily accessible for safe-keeping. However, this method can be somewhat tricky, and you often need to have a good understanding of what you’re looking for.

Your phone can be nothing more than a convenience, or it could be your daily driver. Either way, it can be very problematic to lose its contents to a drop, spill, or random failure. Whatever the case may be, it’s important to remember that your phone is far from bulletproof, and you should always perform safe practices in keeping backups of your important information. Backing up your smartphone now can save you time and energy in the future. However, choosing the method that’s right for you or ensuring your existing method is doing the job can be understandably dizzying. Always remember that you can contact your local technician if you ever need assistance or simply some advice.

April 12 2016

What Your Child Could Be Hiding From You Online: Hidden file vaults, decoy applications, and secret messaging

Computer, IOS, Latest News, MAC, Windows android, pc, Windows 10

Parents: did you ever keep secrets from YOUR parents when you were younger? Information such as where you went after school, if you were dating anyone, or where you spent your money? If any of this sounds familiar, you are definitely not alone. In those days, however, the exchange of information was a lot more limited, and with some things it was nearly impossible to keep a secret from your mother or father. Unlike those days, there are now far more ways in which kids can hide information from their parents, and in many cases, this information can put them in danger.

Many parents these days probably remember having a hard time getting secrets by their parents when they were younger. They had many tricks up their sleeves – skills they learned, often from being busted by their own parents. Secret contacts, convenient and unexpected schedule changes, random check-ups, or just plain intuition. You might think you had gotten off scott free, but a friend’s parent would tell your parents that you were over their house, or your parents would stop by your own house unexpectedly when you were playing hookie, or one of your friends would slip up and indicate offhandedly that you had actually visited the arcade or the movie theater instead of the book store. Whatever the case, at the end of the day, you would be in trouble. For some, that part is probably the MOST familiar part. But either way, both the rebellious acts, as well as the consequences that came with them, would be valuable experiences. After all, a bird has to stretch its wings sometime, even if that means crashing into the ground on more than one occasion. However, as technology has begun to outpace the rest of society, the amount of information that can be shared online has become far more dangerous to the well-being of many, and kids have only been finding more new ways to circumvent their parents.

One of those new methods is through a new set of secret or otherwise hidden apps, capable of doing anything from hiding pictures and text messages, to disguising themselves as other apps for privacy, to even sending temporary messages that “Self Destruct” after a time has passed. With these new tools at their disposal, gone are the days in which a parent need only look at their kids’ text logs or their internet history to see what they’ve been up to. In this case, the kids have begun developing tricks of their own.

One of the newest and most popular applications is, at first glance, a simple calculator app called “Calculator%“. This application is not just a dummy app, it actually is a fully functional calculator. However, the magic happens when you hit the decimal key, input a series of numbers, which can be set by the user, and then hit the decimal key again. Just like that, the calculator app reveals a hidden space where the user can save information at will, information which cannot be accessed any other way. Beyond this level of functionality, the app is also designed in such a way to protect its user, even if the app is found out, by taking pictures of the person trying to log in, whether they are successful or not, and including them with a time, date, and GPS coordinates of the attempt in a log that cannot be altered. This app in particular has become SO popular that an article about it was even featured on ABC news, analyzing the different ways in which this app functions, and warning parents to keep an eye out for it. Again, to parents, watch for suspicious look-alike apps like these – if they’ve gone through the trouble of setting something like this up, you can be sure that they have something serious to hide.

Another powerful asset to those looking to hide their messages specifically is a unique project called “Kaboom“. This application allows one to post or send messages that have a sort of “self-destruct” timer built into them, which causes them to disappear after a certain amount of time. This does resemble what other apps are already doing, but there are some differences. In the case of Snapchat, users can send images and videos to each other that will disappear after a single viewing. The app is quite popular among millions of people, even many celebrities, and is typically innocent enough, but its temporary nature opens it in some kids’ minds as an excellent means of sharing sensitive information that cannot be saved. What many don’t realize, however, is that receivers can still screenshot the open picture or a frame of the video, and thus save it permanently. On the other side, an app like Wickr offers an entire Instant Messaging service with self destructing text messages. The app is so secure and well designed, that it’s even used among state officials and journalists in oppressive countries to communicate discreetly. Thankfully, it’s not too popular among kids yet, but the potential it represents makes it certainly worth mentioning. What sets Kaboom apart from the former two is that it does not require users to switch to a new app or service to use, and instead allows users to send self-destructing messages through the services they already use. Nearly any major messaging application or social network can be used with the app; this includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others, but it also includes forms of communication everyone has access to already, such as Email and Text Messaging. This leaves Kaboom as one of the more potentially widespread methods of discreetly messaging.

Needless to say, this caliber of unmoderated communication that many kids have access to can be very dangerous, and the news is always rife with stories of abductions, kidnappings, or dangerous behavior. Naturally, many parents try their hardest to keep a protective eye on their kids’ online and social activities, but doing so can quickly become a full time job, and with some of the applications above, almost impossible. Thankfully, there are some good practices to follow that can significantly improve one’s chances at keeping their kids safe, and ensuring their security online.

First, the tried and true method of keeping an open contract of communication with your kids is important – talking about a problem with your kids, rather than just jumping right to a punishment, can help them understand why you feel the way you do, and that you aren’t just being completely arbitrary and controlling. Make the problem real; remember, the things you’re worried about don’t actually exist to your kids, and as you might remember, in their minds, they are invincible. Being a resource for discussion, rather than an authority to hide from, can definitely help in removing the need for such apps or secrets in the first place.

Secondly, keep your hands on the reins, but don’t hold them too tightly. As a young adult, I can definitely attest to the fact that I was more likely to fight back the more I felt the prying eyes and meddling claws of my parents in my affairs. Some kids see their parents almost as a government or state of sorts, and romanticize the thought of breaking free from their proverbial shackles. Don’t let them feel like they have anything to hide, as before, but most of all don’t let them feel like they’re being watched. You have to stay involved to keep them safe, but being subtle and non-invasive about it can make them feel a lot more comfortable. Imagine how you might react if some government agency like the FBI showed up and started installing cameras and listening devices around your house. You would protest and act pretty rebelliously too, I would imagine. Keep in mind how you want to be seen; do you want to be the noble Jedi protecting the innocent, or the sinister Galactic Empire, destroying worlds and oppressing the masses?

Third, if it seems to be turning into a real problem, you can always enforce your rules technologically, too. Don’t use passwords on your devices; they’re often easy to guess, and if you enter them around your kids enough, they’ll know them in no time. Instead, use something they can’t fake. Namely, many popular smartphones and tablets these days have fingerprint scanners; those can’t be tricked by the press of a few buttons. For those devices that don’t have fingerprint scanners, applications often exist that can allow you to log in with other more secure means. Any device with a camera will usually have the capability of working with a facial-recognition app, and some devices have other unique password-substitutes such as knocking a rhythm on the screen or drawing a pattern with your finger. While fallible, these latter methods are much harder to guess or remember to an observer than a passcode.

Beyond this, you can secure devices against the installation of applications on their own devices by a few means. In the case of a Mac or PC, making their account a standard user account one while keeping an administrator account locked with your own credentials on the same computer will require them to ask you to install the application from your own account, giving you a chance to see it for yourself prior to installation. For Android and iOS devices, where having multiple accounts on a personal phone or tablet does not make sense, you can register your child’s account for the app store under your own, and invoke the requirement of your approval for all app purchases or downloads. This is where the above methods of keeping your own devices secure is especially important, as all this is for naught if your kids can simply get into your accounts and give “your” permission.

As a parent, keeping your kids safe can be difficult, but there are always options available to you to make the job easier. If you have questions or concerns about these types of applications, as well as the methods by which you can better protect your children, feel free to call us at RGB, or contact your local technician.