Google Pixel and Pixel XL First Look and Tour!

Meizu MX5 Review - The Good & Bad about this SmartPhone

How to get a brand new GoPro for free

The exciting way to take amazing videos
The huge popularity of the GoPro continues to rise and rise in the UK with record sales predicted for 2015. A GoPro camera lets you capture amazing video of what ever you love to do. Starting at £270 they are expensive but you can get a GoPro for free.
Review site Product Testing are giving away the GoPro Hero 4 Silver for free, for their members to test, review and then keep.

Jack Turner, 26, from Norwich, was given a free GoPro Hero Silver 4 to test and keep by Product Testing.
"I can't believe I got it for free." Jack told UK Evening News. "I've always wanted a GoPro, they look so cool, but I never could afford one. I saw Product Testing giving them away for free so I signed up. I was stunned when I was selected to test it. I got a GoPro camera for free and it saved me so much money."
Free to join
Product Testing is free to join and once you complete their survey you could be selected to test, review and then keep a brand new GoPro Hero 4 Silver. Product Testing has been giving away free products since 2012 and they give away a product every day.
Michael Hall, 30, from Aldwarke, Rotherham, was also given a free GoPro Hero 4 Silver by Product Testing.
"You won't believe how easy it is." Michael told UK Evening News. "It only took a couple of minutes to sign up and complete the survey. i was then selected to be a product tester and sent a free GoPro. I couldn't believe how easy it they made it and how it was all for free. I'm loving the GoPro I've taken so many amazing videos."
For your chance to save over £250 and get a brand new GoPro Hero 4 Silver for free join Product Testing today. If you're selected you'll be sent a GoPro Hero 4 Silver to test, review and keep.
How to join Product Testing today
Step 1 Click here for Product Testing
Step 2 Sign up for free and then complete the short survey

LG G5 Unboxing!

What is Adfly and how to use it?

  To respond briefly to the question I have to say that adfly is a URL shortener service  that will allow you to make some extra money with links that you have in a website or social network. To be more precise, you get paid to share links on the Internet.
     How AdFly Works:
People pay to advertise with adf.ly, and people who shrink their links with adf.ly get a cut of the profit every time someone clicks an adf.ly shortened link. Important Adfly pays when you reach the minimum limit of $ 5 and paid each month on the 5th of course if you reached the minimum payout limit. 
   How to open an account:
1. Firstly, you need to go to adf.ly to register for an account by clicking “Join Now”.
2. Fill up the application form. For the column “Account Type”, choose “Link Shrinker: Create shortened URLs and earn money”.
3. Then adf.ly will send an email to you to activate your account. You must do it within 3 days.
4. In your email you it will enclosed an activation key. It is just a combination list of numbers and letters.
5. Once you click on link to your confirmation webpage, it will open a blue color page with title “Account Confirmation” with an empty box for you to fill in the activation key as mentioned above.
6. Copy the activation key and click “submit” button.
7. Then immediately your adf.ly is successfully confirmed. Click on “click here” to log in to your newly signed up account.
 http://www.adobe.com/go/getflash
  8. Now log in and update your account details.  Now you post them or send them to people as you usually would with any shortened link. adf.ly will show an ad just before the shortened link loads.
You can find out more about details about the publisher rates from here.
Once you have earned $5.00 USD, it will be  automatically bank into your account on the first Monday of each month. adf.ly will pay you through either PayPal or AlertPay.
    Earn Money With adf.ly Full Page Script
  If you have a site with thousands of links, you don’t need to shrink one by one. You just copy and paste the code called Full Page Script on to your webpage or blog and the links will be updated automatically. Here is another full page script which I found it from its forum. Copy and paste it into your BODY tag of your site. Remember to replace the adfly id xxxxxx to your own id.
<script type=”text/javascript”>
onmousemove = function adfly() {
adfly_id = ‘xxxxxx’; //replace with your ID
for (var i = 0; i < document.links.length; i++) {
var hrefer = document.links[i].href;
if(hrefer.match(“adf.ly”) || hrefer.match(“javascript:”)|| hrefer.match(“#”)) {
document.links[i].href = document.links[i].href;
}else{document.links[i].href = ‘http://adf.ly/’ + adfly_id + ‘/’ + document.links[i].href;}
}
}
</script>
For those of you who use Blogger, you have to parse the script so it can work on your template.
    Website Entry Script
  Then there is another set of code called Website Entry Script for those of you who want to earn money when a visitor simply enters your site. Take note. If you advertise your website or blog on a PTC site, then you are NOT allowed to include this Website Entry Script that page of your site.
My personal view on making money with adf.ly is that you can make some good extra passive online income if you have lots of traffic to your site.
Still interested? Then quick go over to adf.ly and register yourself an account and start earning money online now.

Android 7.0 Nougat review: great, but does it matter?

Google has announced that the latest version of Android, 7.0 Nougat, is rolling out to newer Nexus devices starting today. It’s a good upgrade, but only available if you have a recent Nexus device like the Nexus 6, 6P, 5X, Pixel C, or Nexus 9 tablet — and it will take some time for everybody's devices to receive the over-the-air update. I've been using the various public betas that have been running since March of this year and most of the bugs have been worked out.
Nougat isn’t radically different from the last version, Marshmallow, but does add a handful of notable user-facing features. Some of them, like improved multitasking, are long overdue and really useful on tablets. The rest are tweaks around the edges — but there are bigger changes underneath that should make Android faster and more secure, too.
But the story of Nougat isn't really whether it’s any good. Instead, it’s the same old Android tale: unless you have a Nexus, it could be a few months, it could be a year, before it becomes available on your phone. The real story of Nougat isn't happening today, it's going to happen over the next few months as we watch to see which Android phones will actually be updated.
What kind of story is this? For Nexus owners, it’s a heartwarming yarn. For nearly everybody else, it’s a mystery.

Multitasking

With Nougat, Google has added a major feature that's been a long time coming: split-screen support. It's been available on Samsung, Apple, and Windows devices for some time now, and now Google has weighed in with a system-level version of it that will hopefully become well-supported by all apps. It also works on phones instead of just on tablets — which is smart given how big a lot of Android phones are these days.

It works thusly: you long-press the square "Overview" button and your main window slides up to the top or over to the left, depending on whether you are using your Android device in portrait or landscape. In the remaining space, you get the good old multitasking view of your open apps, where you can either pick one or hit the home button to launch something else. You can adjust the size of each window and switch out the bottom / right one the usual way, by tapping the multitasking or home button to choose another app.

Every mobile split-screen system takes a bit of getting used to. The UX for all of them is confusing at first, and so Nougat's variation also takes some time to understand. For me, it clicked when I realized that the core behavior going into split screen is essentially the same as "pinning" the main app to the top or left, and then the other screen can be switched as usual.

Split screen is long overdue on tablets

Once you get it, there are just the devils in the details to worry about. Theoretically, you can drag and drop text or images in supported apps, but in practice I never got this to work reliably. Some apps don’t fully support split screen, while others work fine but pop up a warning anyway. One nice bit: Chrome now has a menu option called "Move to other window" which does exactly what it says — so you can have two browser windows open side by side.

I find that split screen is essential and useful on a tablet like the Pixel C. Thanks to Nougat, the Pixel C has gone from a device that made next to no sense to a device that makes just enough sense to consider (but really only if you're wholly invested in the Android ecosystem). On a phone it's a little less important than on a tablet, but nevertheless really helpful in a pinch.

There is another multitasking tweak that I found myself using all the time, though. Double tapping the square button immediately switches to the last-used app. I hadn't realized how much of my app switching comprised just toggling between two recent apps, and now that I can do it so easily I can't really imagine going back.

Last and least: Nougat reduces the number of apps that appear in the multitasking view and adds a "clear all" button at the top of it. Google's recommendation has long been that there's no need to quit out of apps to improve Android's performance and I don't see any reason that would be different in Nougat. But if you like getting rid of things, well, have at it.

Notifications

Besides multitasking, the other notable interface change comes with notifications. Nougat finally has a system-level way for apps to let you quick-reply to messages right inside their notifications. It works as you'd expect: when you get a message, you can drag down on the card, tap reply, and then type and send — all without opening the app.

Notifications are now full-width on the screen and stacked right atop each other instead of appearing as separated cards. You can do more with them, too: apps can "bundle" multiple alerts into a single notification, which can then be expanded by dragging down on it. It’s a smart system that I like using: you can triage notifications quickly or interact with them one by one, depending on your needs.

A long press brings up notification options for that app, which makes it much easier to quiet noisy apps. You can still dismiss notifications by swiping them away, of course. And Nougat also continues one of Android's best notification features: they act exactly the same whether you're in the notification drawer, the lock screen, or seeing them drop down from the top of your screen.

Those last two things — swiping to dismiss and consistent behavior no matter where you're seeing the notification — are features that Apple still hasn't figured out on iOS (even in the upcoming iOS 10 beta). Android has long had an advantage in useful and consistent notifications, and now that quick replies are standard on it I don't see that lead diminishing.

Tweaks: for better and worse

The other thing to say about notifications is that Google has finally figured out that everybody wants to just see the quick settings panel at the top of the notifications tray right away. So now there are buttons across the top for your most-used settings toggles and you can customize their order, too. This is also where you'll find Nougat's Easter egg, a little game that lets you put treats out for virtual cats.

There are lots more nips and tucks throughout the new Android OS. The settings app is a little more informative now — it shows key details right on the main screen. There's a Data Saver feature for limiting what apps can do when you're on a cellular connection. Google's keyboard — not technically tied to Nougat — can be themed with different colors or even a photo. There are more emoji with proper support for multiple skin tones. The camera app has been cleaned up a bit — and now you can twist the phone like a screwdriver when the camera is open to quickly swap between the front and rear camera. All of these tiny changes move Android in the right direction, making it more functional without adding too much visual complexity.

Weirdly, my biggest gripe about Nougat is related to the thing you'd expect Android to be stupendously good at: Google search. It's kind of a mess. Google Now doesn't really seem to be getting any better at figuring out what information will be useful to me. Google Now On Tap is still pretty frustrating: it’s supposed to figure out what's on the screen and return relevant results, but usually returns no results or, at best, not very good ones.

But even setting that aside, the Google search app itself just seems lost and disconnected from the rest of the operating system. When you search, it puts the results into its own custom browser window that feels custom-designed for one-off searches instead of persistent research. When you Google, how often are you opening results in tabs? I do it all the time, but it's a huge hassle on Nougat. I wrote last month that Google's apps seem better on the iPhone than they do on Android, and the Google app itself is the prime candidate.

It's worst on the Pixel C, because hitting the search button on the keyboard now just brings up Now On Tap. Which means it reads the screen, fails to figure anything out, and then forces you to tap the search field to start typing. Then, when you do, it pulls up the Google app for search results. And, incredibly, the Google app doesn't support split screen — which means that every time you search, the windows you have open are banished to the multitasking screen.

Behind the screens

A lot of what's new in Nougat are features you can’t really see. I'm talking about deeply nerdy (but important) stuff like a JIT compiler for ART apps and support for the Vulkan API for 3D graphics. The former should provide some performance gains while the latter will help Android games look way better. Google also fixed up the way Android handles media so that it's more secure, added file-based encryption, and added some features for enterprise users.

VR on Android will come later this year

Doze, which was introduced in last year’s Marshmallow OS, is Android's battery-saving feature that shuts apps down when they're not it use. Previously, it kicked in when your phone or tablet was sitting on a table. Now, it throttles stuff back whenever your screen is off. It should be a boon for battery life, but it’s hard for me to really say how much it will help just yet. Even though Google assures me the only difference between the final beta and the official version are minor bug fixes, I still feel like beta software can be rough on battery life. I haven’t noticed battery life being significantly better on my Nexus 5X.

My favorite structural improvement is also the one most richly steeped in Schadenfreude: seamless updates. Like Google's Chrome OS, future Android devices will ship with two storage partitions for the OS. That allows Google to quietly send your phone a whole new operating system and install it on the partition that isn't running your phone. When it's done and checked out, the next time you reboot, the new version starts working and the old version sits there — waiting to be replaced with the next version.

It's a super smart system and will mean that future Android updates will happen with much less waiting and worry. Except that, well, if you don’t have a Nexus device there’s no telling when or even if you’ll get an operating system update.

My gripes about the Google App aside, overall I am happy with Nougat. Think of it along the lines of the smaller updates we get every other year on Mac or the way that Microsoft is treating Windows updates today: it's a little bit iterative, but builds the groundwork for future updates.

One of those future updates will be Daydream, Google's upcoming VR platform. It's not part of this Nougat release, so I haven't addressed it here (and a disclosure: my wife works for Oculus so I won't be addressing it when it is released).

But, as I mentioned early on, the bigger story here is not whether Nougat is a worthwhile OS update; it is. No, the real story is which phones will receive it and when. We don't know how long it will be before a significant number of users have access to it, either via upgrades to existing devices or support from upcoming devices. All we can do is read the tea leaves.

No matter who you blame, the Android update situation is still a mess

This is a very old story, it’s something Android users have always and will continue to deal with. At the risk of belaboring it, let me just tell some small parts again. Only 15 percent of devices are on last year's version of Android Marshmallow. Android has been rocked by serious security problems in the past year, and so the debate around updates has shifted from being about users who want the latest features to being about users who need to be protected from hackers and malware.

So instead of asking about the latest version of Android, we're asking about the new monthly security updates that Google is issuing. And the answers to that new, less ambitious but more important question are not good, as Android Central pointed out in February. Now, buying a new Android phone demands that the consumer look into whether the manufacturer has committed to those monthly updates and if it has a good history of keeping that promise (so far: Samsung, HTC, and BlackBerry are doing pretty well, Moto and Sony are not).

It's possible that this time will be different, but I’m not optimistic. Every year Google tries a different tactic to strong-arm manufacturers and carriers into updating their phones. The latest is a surprisingly early developer beta program for Android N — it was first released way back in March. Maybe that will help, and there is at least one good sign: the LG V20 will be launching with Android Nougat before Google launches the next Nexus phones. It’s a start, but right now the burden of proof is on Google to convince us that more will follow.

The only reliable way to be up to date is to get a Nexus

We've all become inured to the reality that the only real way to reliably get the latest version of Android is to get a Nexus phone. Luckily, Google has mostly been doing a pretty good job with its Nexus line lately. CEO Sundar Pichai has promised that Google would be "more opinionated" about the design of Nexus phones going forward. I'm very curious to see exactly what that means — and whether that opinion extends to trying harder to sell more Nexus phones.

I'm curious because given how recalcitrant manufacturers and carriers have been about updating Android and given how ineffectual Google has been at forcing them to do so, selling more Nexus phones looks like the only way Google has left to reliably get people on its latest Android operating system.

It’s been a problem for as long as Android has been around and even though it’s not new, it’s still a problem. Nougat is a solid update, it’s a shame it will take so long for anybody to see it.

Photography by James Bareham.

What is VR? Virtual reality explained

Virtual reality, or VR, is the latest buzzword in the wonderful world of technology. Don't be fooled into thinking it is a new technology though, it isn't, but that's not to say it isn't something to get excited about.

For those who are wondering what on earth VR is and why you should be getting your knickers or pants in a twist over it, you've come to the right place.
We are about to tell you what virtual reality is, how it works and what devices there are currently out there using this wonderful technology that you should make it your business to know about.

What is virtual reality (VR)?

First things first, you're going to need to know what VR actually is. The clue is in the name - it's the experience of a world that doesn't actually exist. We aren't talking about getting yourself lost in a book or day dreaming about a photo or painting however, even if these technically a
re also experiencing some sort of virtual reality.

The virtual reality we are talking about is one created by computers that allows you to experience and interact with a 3D world that isn't real by putting on a head-mounted display and some form of input tracking. The display will typically be split between your eyes, creating a stereoscopic 3D effect with stereo sound, and together with the technology and the input tracking, it will create an immersive, believable experience, allowing you to explore the virtual world being generated by the computer.

VR will make you feel like you are there mentally and physically. You turn your head and the world turns with you so the illusion created by whatever world you are in is never lost.
Watch a film in the cinema and the split-second fear you might feel when a devastating earthquake happens on screen will very quickly disappear if you turn your head to see the person next to you munching away on their popcorn. Films and books take you to different fictional worlds, but they are not world's you change based on your actions.
There are various kinds of virtual reality from fully immersive and non-immersive to collaborative and web-based. The VR everyone is excited about is the fully-immersive variation because this is the explorable and interactive 3D computer-created world that can take you to places reality might not allow for, be that walking on Mars or driving around the mountains in a sportscar.

Where did virtual reality come from?

VR as we know it today has been kicking around for decades. To give you an idea, the first head-mounted display wasn't Oculus, even though this is the device that arguably drove the VR renaissance, it was a device called Headsight that was created in the 1960s. But there were non-digital predecessors, all the way from 360 degree paintings that had the same aim: to take your experience to another place. VR is the wise guy in tech and not just because it is old.

The technology has been used for all sorts of things over its 200 years from science and medicine to training pilots and helping architects present their latest skyscraper, allowing people to experience walking through it before a brick has been laid.
Yes, the current focus might be largely on gaming, but that's not all that VR is good for. VR has plenty of applications and this is only likely to expand as the technology develops further.
Audi recently announced it would be putting VR in some of its brand stores for example, allowing customers to experience any of its 50-something models in the colours they want, the extras they might add and in the surroundings they might drive in. Go ahead, take an A1 to the moon to visit the John Lewis advert's man and his balloons.

How does virtual reality work?

The virtual reality we have been referring to in this feature typically requires some form of head-mounted display, a computer, smartphone or console that creates the 3D world and some form of input tracking, which could be hand tracking, voice or head.
There are currently a number of head-mounted displays all using this set-up including Oculus, which is the system Facebook bought in a deal worth $2 billion in 2014, HTC Vive, Sony PlayStation VR, Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR, and others.
As we mentioned, some of the VR devices contain a display, splitting the feed for each eye. In these cases, a cable (usually HDMI) will transfer the video from your PC or console to the screen(s) in front of your eyes. For the likes of Google Cardboard and Samsung's Gear VR and some of the more affordable options, a smartphone is slotted into the headset and used as the display with the content already loaded on.

That's only part of the story though as there is plenty more that goes into creating the fully immersive experience many companies in this field are aiming for. For example, there are lenses for reshaping images into a stereoscopic 3D image, while 100 or 110-degree field of views are on board to ensure whichever way you look, the world created follows you. A high frame rate (minimum of 60fps) is also important to ensure the world reacts as it would in reality in order for the illusion to remain intact.
In terms of input tracking, there are several variations, all of which contribute to creating this fully-immersive world, whether that's individually or in a combination of forms. Different devices use different components in order to achieve this, ranging from sensors and LEDs to wireless controllers.
For example, Sony PlayStation VR offers 360-degree head tracking by monitoring signals from the nine LED lights around the headset with a PS4 camera. When it comes to head tracking, low latency is a must to ensure there is minimal lag between you turning your head and the world you're experiencing responding. Some devices are better at this than others, with Oculus being one of the better ones offering only a 30-millisecond lag.
Motion tracking has been seen in a variety of forms from smart gloves to the likes of Oculus Touch, Valve's Lighthouse and HTC's controllers for its Vive headset. Each of these things work slightly differently but the idea is to ensure you feel as though you are using your hands during your experience. We won't go into the ins and outs, but a plethora of sensors are involved, as well as lasers emitted from base stations in some cases, all of which helps with the detection the precise position of your head and hands.
In terms of the most popular head-mounted displays that are currently being talked about, that's pretty much all that's involved. But there is one more thing that could add to the VR experienceheadset uses an infrared sensor to work out where your eyes are looking in the VR world to then recreate what your eyes would see if in reality, by focusing the foreground or background accordingly.

Why is everyone talking about VR?

VR is at an exciting time in 2016. Many of the devices that have been in development over the last few years are almost at launch point, which means in the next few months, this virtual reality experience we have been banging on about is something you'll be able to experience yourself. Some have been available for some time, but as the VR hype builds, so too do those experiences.
There are plenty of options coming, but the main ones you'll hear about are Sony PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR. You can find all our first experiences, second experiences and in some cases even third experiences with these as they have developed in our Virtual Reality hub.