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Summer has arrived and is here to stay. This summer, one can enjoy the true flavours of the season with an extravaganza of brilliant and feature-rich phones that can light up happiness and spread cheer. The year 2012 is raining phones. Yes, even in the season of summer, great phones are pouring, one after the other. Here’s a look at the best and the latest, which brighten up one’s life with their irresistible features and true value for money.

Samsung Galaxy S3

This summer witnesses the launch of one of the most awaited phones so far, Samsung Galaxy S3, which is the advanced successor of Samsung Galaxy S II. What more? It comes with the good news that the phone does live-up to the much hyped expectations around it.

Being the next version of the most admired Galaxy S II, Samsung Galaxy S3 is loaded with cutting-edge technology and futuristic product features. With its 1.4 GHz quad-core processor, this is definitely one of the most powerful smartphones available in the market till date. The 1GB memory, along with 1.4 GHz quad-core processor, offers lightning fast response times and excellent user experience.

Looks, weight, and display, are the other categories where Galaxy S3 scores top. With its sleek stylish looks, and 4.8 inch wide display, Galaxy S3 is surely beauty with the brains. The 306ppi pixel density on the new Amoled screen provides striking HD display, making it a feast for the eyes. A weight of just 133g makes it one of the lightest in the segment and a true powerhouse. What more, the phone is also loaded with a whole new bunch of innovative features. Now one can not only talk to his phone, but can also look at it and the ‘smart’; phone (well it’s actually 1.9 megapixel front camera) recognizes it. Priced around £500, which is well justified by phone’;s technology and features, this is definitely one of the coolest picks of this summer.

See larger image SAMSUNG GALAXY SIII GT-i9300 16GB PEBBLE BLUE FACTORY UNLOCKED GSM i9300 S3 (3G HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100) - PRE-ORDER (Electronics) New From: $768.99 In Stock

iPhone 4S

Some names are legends, and iPhone is the classic example for this fact, and while the iPhone 4s is not new it is still a great phone. It is a phone that continues the tradition of the most loved iPhone. With an 800 MHz Apple A5 dual-core processor, along with 512 MB of memory, iPhone 4S offers impressively great user experience, exceptional multi-tasking capacity and fastest processing. Yet another striking feature of iPhone 4S is its Retina display with 326ppi pixel density that offers crystal clear clarity, providing an out of the world visual experience.

If smart phones are all about feasting one’s five senses, this is it. Just next to the heavenly visual experience, and a feather touch UI, iPhone 4S also offers excellent voice recognition software Siri, which performs varied functions on voice commands and can even find answers for user’s questions from the Internet.

This wonder widget is priced at $499 for 16GB edition, £599 for the 32GB version and a whopping $699 for the latest 64GB capacity, and is up for grabs this summer.

See larger image Apple iPhone 4S 16GB - AT&T - Black (Unlocked Phone) New From: $520.00 In Stock Used from: $449.00 In Stock

HTC One X

Another smart pick of this summer could definitely be HTC One X, priced around £470. With its fresh looks, intuitive features and powerhouse performance, this smart phone has a lot to offer. The phone comes with a 4.7 inch display and 720p HD resolution, providing superior image quality and visual effects. The 8 megapixel camera along with HTC ImageSense lets one capture and shoot captivating images and full HD videos. Adding to this is its Tegra 3 chip 1.5GHz quad core chip, and 1 GB RAM that ensure extensive multi-tasking capability.

p>The phone also comes with the latest, super cool Android Ice Cream Sandwich and makes way for some of the coolest gaming experience. The HTC Sense 4.0 provides an added advantage of HTC Car, which is an intuitive driving companion capable of navigating one to a geo-tagged photo. The HTC One X has specially addressed the audio experience needs of today’s music freak gadget geeks. It has built-in, highly advanced Beats audio software that makes one to relish the musical experience for hours.

See larger image HTC One X S720E with Beats Audio Unlocked GSM Android SmartPhone - International Version, No Warranty (Black) (Wireless Phone Accessory) New From: $570.00 In Stock Used from: $490.00 In Stock

Spring being the season of blossoms, there are plenty of such fabulous offers for the tech lovers, making this season more colourful and enriching.

About Paul Salmon

Paul Salmon is the founder of Technically Easy. He is a an experienced PC user, and enjoys solving computer-related problems that he encounters on a regular basis.

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The one aspect of staying secure online is through the use of unique passwords for my different online accounts. Insecure passwords are by far the main reason many people have their online accounts hijacked or stolen. Unfortunately, remembering a unique password for every account is not really feasible for anyone. To solve the problem I have been using LastPass for over a year, and have found it to be a must-have tool for security.

After using it for that year I have decided to put together a list of the 10 top reasons that I like to use LastPass for managing my passwords. While there are many more reasons that I could list, these reasons have stuck out in my mind above everything else.

1. It is Secure

Saying LastPass is secure is rather an understatement to some degree. LastPass encrypts all your data on your local computer using your master password, which is never stored anywhere. This master password is what is used to access your secured, personal vault. Since all your data is encrypted locally using your master password, if you were to lose or forget that password, you won’t be able to gain access to all your data. The LastPass team can’t even decrypt your data without your master password, since they don’t even know your master password, nor can they retrieve that password.

2. Automatically Saves and Fills in Login Credentials

When you enter login credentials for a website, and that site hasn’t been added to your personal LastPass vault, LastPass will display a message asking you if you would like to add that site to your vault. If you accept, the website URL, user name, and password are automatically added to your vault. The next time you visit that same site, LastPass can automatically fill in both the user name and password fields for you.

3. Store Multiple Login Credentials for Any Website

In addition to the previous point, you may have multiple accounts for the same website. For example, you may have multiple Twitter or Facebook accounts. LastPass allows you to save multiple login credentials for any site. Once you enter a different set of login credentials to a site that is currently stored in your vault, LastPass will ask you to overwrite the current credentials or add a new login. When you visit the site later, you can choose which login credentials to use for the site.

4. Can Be Used on Multiple Devices/Platforms

I really haven’t seen too many applications that can be used across as many devices and platforms as LastPass. So far I have used LastPass on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (64-bit), and Ubuntu operating systems. In addition, LastPass has been installed within Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome. My Samsung Infuse 4G Android phone also has LastPass installed. I haven’t had a single issue with LastPass, and all my LastPass data was synced across all my devices without any issues.

5. Securely Stores More Than Just Passwords

This was an option I have just started to look at recently. While LastPass is known for storing passwords, you can also store other data in your secured vault. You can store such things a personal data, credit cards, banking information, and just plain notes-type data as securely as you store your data. IF you use your credit card for making purchases online, you can store that information in LastPass and have it automatically fill in your credit card information when you need it. Of course, you will need to feel comfortable with doing so.

6. One Time Passwords

One time passwords are passwords that you can create in LastPass than can be used only once. Why would you need one time passwords? These are useful when you would like to log into your LastPass account from a public computer, or a computer that you don’t trust. Since such computers could have keyloggers installed, you wouldn’t want to use your secret master password, as it could be stolen by the keylogger. Instead you would use a one time password to log into LastPass, to access your vault. IF a keylogger were to steal that one time password it couldn’t use it again, since the password will only log into LastPass one time.

7. Password Generator

LastPass includes a handy, easy-to-use, password generator for helping you generate a secure password. The generator includes options for length, number of characters, number of numeric digits, and number of symbols. Once you set the options it will generate a password for you. If the generator recognizes that you are on a page where you can create or change a password, it will automatically fill in the fields with the newly generated password. With this tool I have also seen which sites can accept secure passwords and which one have lax password security.

8. Open About Any Security Issues

I remember not too long after I start using LastPass that they saw some ‘suspicious activity’ on their network. Now people have talked about how LastPass experience a breach, but from what LastPass could see, no data was compromised – especially since all user data is encrypted. While it may be a little disconcerning to hear this, you need to remember that no system is completely secure. LastPass actively monitors their network, and reports any issues that they encounter to their user community. I am always impressed with companies that inform their users of any security-related issues, regardless of how large or small the issue seems. I haven’t heard of any issues since that time, nor have I experienced any issues myself.

9. Multifactor Authentication

Ah, just when I thought LastPass couldn’t be anymore secure, they have made it even harder for someone to get at my personal data. Multifactor authentication requires you to provide a second method of logging into your vault besides only using your master password. This means that after you enter your master password, you will be required to enter another piece of information, which really deters hackers from gaining access. LastPass supports many multifactor options, including:

• Google Authenticator (Free)
• Grid Multifactor Authentication (Free)
• Sesame Multifactor Authentication (Premium)
• Yubikey Multifactor Authentication (Premium)
• Fingerprint Authentication (Premium)
• Smart Card Authentication (Premium)

10. Dirt Cheap

If you read the above list of multifactor authentication options, you may notice that some had free and premium after the options. This relates to the account level of LastPass – free and premium. The free option allows you to use LastPass, for well, free. The premium account costs a massive (sarcasm) $1/month, and includes a few other features outlined on their account comparison page. Since I like LastPass, and wish to support their work, I have paid for the premium account.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there are many other reasons why I like to use LastPass. If you are looking for a way to manage your passwords in a secure way then I highly recommend you sign up and use LastPass.

About Paul Salmon

Paul Salmon is the founder of Technically Easy. He is a an experienced PC user, and enjoys solving computer-related problems that he encounters on a regular basis.

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1. LastPass – The Ultimate in Password Protection
2. Keep Your Passwords Secure with LockNote
3. Creating Secure Passwords
4. Size Does Matter…at Least for Passwords

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As the world of technology continues to offer up new gadgets for us to enjoy, smartphones are expected to retain their dominance over the mobile markets. Offering a great host of features, smartphones often come with a high price tag and this means the threat of damage and breakages is a major concern for owners. Finding the best out of the rugged smartphones is therefore a priority – but what are the toughest models on the market?

1. Samsung Galaxy

The S2 model already boasts user memory of 16GB with expandable memory card slots offering an extra 32GB alongside a thinner, sturdy design. However, rumours for the S3 suggest that a metal casing could become a standard feature of future designs, putting the Samsung Galaxy range top of the list.

See larger image Samsung i9100 Galaxy S II Unlocked GSM Smartphone with 8 MP Camera, Android OS, 16 GB Internal Memory, Touchscreen, Wi-Fi, GPS - No Warranty - Noble Black (Wireless Phone Accessory) List Price: $602.00 USD New From: $459.00 In Stock Used from: $389.99 In Stock

2. Nokia Lumia

Made of a smooth one piece body, this model uses curved Corning Gorilla Glass to give it the strongest, most resilient design possible. With a 1400MHz CPU, 16 GB of built in memory and 512 MB of RAM the phone performs well too.

See larger image Nokia Lumia 900 4G Windows Phone, Black (AT&T) (Wireless Phone) List Price: $499.99 USD Release date April 8, 2012.

3. Motorola Defy

The first waterproof smartphone, the Motorola Defy has a lot of positive attributes. The model is constructed from a combination of soft-touch plastic and Gorilla Glass – which is known for its durability. This helps to prevent the screen from being scratched whilst all openings and ports are well covered so that water is unable to reach the internal components.

See larger image Motorola Defy MB525 Unlocked Cellphone with Android OS 2.2, 5MP Camera, Wi-Fi and GPS No Warranty - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory) List Price: $599.99 USD New From: $214.90 In Stock Used from: $175.00 In Stock

4. BlackBerry and iPhone

According to research by Square Trade, you are least likely to drop your BlackBerry after one year of ownership. Unfortunately, a high malfunction rate on the models puts them in second position on the Square Trade’s list of durable smartphones, with the now out-dated iPhone3GS taking pole position.

See larger image Apple iPhone 4S 16GB - AT&T - Black (Unlocked Phone) New From: $520.00 In Stock Used from: $449.00 In Stock

5. HTC Velocity

Of course, strength isn’t all about resilience and a smartphone needs to have tough credentials when it comes to storage. Everyone knows that the attraction to smartphones lies in their apps and without enough storage space or processing power to run these your smartphone will be left redundant.

The HTC Velocity is perfect for this and offers an incredible 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage with the possibility to expand through a microSD slot. As the maximum size of some smartphone applications, such as those used by BlackBerry, is just 128KB this means users could store an almost limitless amount of these on the HTC if using similar sized programs.

This means that smartphone choice has never been more diverse and the future of mobiles is sure to see bigger and more resilient models flood the market.

About Paul Salmon

Paul Salmon is the founder of Technically Easy. He is a an experienced PC user, and enjoys solving computer-related problems that he encounters on a regular basis.

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1. Top 5 Smartphones to Look Forward to in 2012
2. Smartphones: Style vs. Smartness
3. 15 Tips For Keeping Your Smartphones Safe
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Now is a wonderful time to be a smartphone owner. With an iPhone or Android phone, you can find deals and savings that would require hours of digging otherwise. And if you shop around, you can also find phones themselves at very low prices.

I’m going to share some of my favorite tips and apps for finding deals, so you can enjoy the nicer things in life without breaking your bank.

Explore Used Tech

Whether you’re looking for gadgets for yourself or your small business, you can find great deals if you’re willing to consider used technology. Gazelle.com, for instance, offers the chance to trade in your own outdated gear in exchange for other gear. Likewise, major carriers offer used cell phones, so you can find great deals on recent and even current smartphones.

Talkatone

I can’t think of many better ways to enjoy tech while saving money than to invest in a high quality internet calling service. Talkatone is an app that lets you call anyone over wifi or 3G/4G, using your Google Voice account. Furthermore, you can make voice calls to Facebook friends, even if they don’t have a “standard” phone. Use an app like this (or perhaps Skype) to prevent incurring expensive calling plan overages, or to reduce the size of your plan. (Free on Google Play)

Price Check by Amazon

Be a savvy shopper no matter where you go. With this amazing app, you can take a picture of just about any product to see its price on Amazon. You don’t even need to snap the barcode; just the product box is good enough. (Free on Google Play and iTunes)

The Coupons App

For a more comprehensive savings tool, I highly recommend the The Coupons App, which is loaded with information about all kinds of deals. You’ll find everything from gas price comparisons to discounts for restaurants. Search for your favorite products or scan item barcodes to see if there are any discounts available. And when you do have a coupon, simply have a cashier scan it right from your phone. I’d say this app pays for itself, but it’s free, so you can’t go wrong trying it out. (Free on Google Play and iTunes)

KAYAK

If you plan on traveling, don’t miss out on deals from travel-comparison apps. Between its quality design and ease-of-use, I like KAYAK’s app the most myself. But Priceline, Hotels.com, and Expedia are just a few well-made apps for finding travel deals. With enough savvy, you can save hundreds of dollars on a single trip using KAYAK. (Free on Google Play and iTunes)

About Paul Salmon

Paul Salmon is the founder of Technically Easy. He is a an experienced PC user, and enjoys solving computer-related problems that he encounters on a regular basis.

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A few weeks ago my wife mentioned that she was always getting “Recommended for You” popup ads displayed in her browser whenever she visited a web site. The popup was an ad that would appear in the lower-right corner of her browser window. At first I thought it was related to the site she was visiting until I saw the popup appear on multiple sites. I wasn’t quite sure what was happening so I decided to do a little research.

The Recommended For You Issue

After performing a few tests I determined that there was indeed a problem on her laptop. While visiting a site an ad, with an iPhone or simple rectangle background, would appear in the lower-right corner of the Web browser window. While the ads didn’t appear to impact the laptop, they became annoying after a while.

The ads would appear on many different websites using multiple browsers. She uses Internet Explorer on Windows 7, so I originally thought it was limited to that browser. I was wrong. I launched Google’s Chrome Web browser and noticed that the ads appeared within that Web browser as well.

Next, I logged in with my own separate account and started to noticed the popup ads appear in my browser window as well. After seeing this I determined that it was a system-wide issue, and not related to a specific Web browser or user account.

The Fix

I first started to look at the actual HTML source code of the pages that displayed the popup ads using a Firefox plugin called “Firebug.” This plugin allowed me to go right to the lines of HTML code that displayed the popup ads.

The code indicated that the Javascript file being executed was ga.js from google-analytics.com. This web site is owned by Google, and redirects you to the actual Google Analytics home page, so I was confused at why this file would caused the problem.

I then thought about what could be the root cause, and it would need to be on the local system. I then thought about the “hosts” file, which allows someone to point a domain to a specific IP address.

I opened the hosts file, located in “C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc”, into notepad to take a look at what was written in the file. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but then I scrolled down and found the problem. The hosts file on the laptop was as follows:

The line “(200 blank lines)” was exactly that – 200 blank lines that pushed the last 6 entries below the viewing area of the file. What the last lines do is point popular website metrics and ad sites to another IP address. This IP address would then use it’s own copy of common Javascript files to display the “Recommended for You” popup ads.

To solve the problem I deleted the last 6 entries, as well as the 200 blank lines, and then saved the new hosts file. Of course, on Windows 7 I needed to log in as an administrator and change the permissions to allow me to write to the file first.

Once the change was made, the “Recommended for You” popup ads no longer appear in the Web browser. Now I just need to figure out how that file was modified.

About Paul Salmon

Paul Salmon is the founder of Technically Easy. He is a an experienced PC user, and enjoys solving computer-related problems that he encounters on a regular basis.

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1. 5 Tools to Test Your Browser for Vulnerabilities
2. How to Test Your Web Site on a Smaller Browser Window
3. Some Security & Privacy Extensions For The Chrome Browser
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