Microsoft’s New iOS Selfie App Guesses Your Age to Auto-Enhance Your Face

Microsoft has launched a new camera app for iPhones that's designed to help you take the perfect selfie. It's called Microsoft Selfie, and it uses some of Microsoft's latest technology to auto-tweak snapshots of your face.

After snapping a face photo with your front or back camera, the app will analyze the photo to figure out your age, gender, skin tone, lighting, and other variables. It can then apply a number of enhancements to your selfie with just a single tap.

"Users can transform average photos into more presentable portraits in seconds," Microsoft says. "Key features of this application are noise reduction, intelligent enhancement, automatic exposure and color theme."

The app also includes preset "filters" you can use to apply different styles and looks to your selfies.

Microsoft Selfie is available now for free through the iTunes App Store. The 57 megabyte app is compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

(via iTunes App Store via Engadget)

P.S. Microsoft put its age-guessing algorithm online for public enjoyment earlier this year with its website "How Old Do I Look?."

Source: Microsoft's New iOS Selfie App Guesses Your Age to Auto-Enhance Your Face

Microsoft released a new selfie app for iOS because YOLO

Microsoft has done an excellent job of putting its apps and services where users are lately. Since Satya Nadella took over at CEO in early 2014, the company has released great (and free) Office apps for iOS and Android, leveraged its purchase of Accompli to turn Outlook into probably the best mobile email app out there and even released Cortana to other platforms. Now, the company is turning to a far more crucial service that every smartphone user will surely appreciate -- making your selfies better.

A new iPhone app, appropriately titled "Microsoft Selfie," promises to help improve your front-facing camera game by automatically adjusting exposure and clearing up your horrible skin imperfections (at least that's what it seemed to do for me). It also reduces noise and takes into account a variety of factors like age, gender, skin tone and lighting when making its adjustments.

The results, at least on my end, were a little startling -- it smoothed out my face to the point where I was a bit uncomfortable with the results. Fortunately, there's a slider that you can use to adjust exactly how much processing the app will apply to the final photo before saving it to your camera roll. Naturally, there are also some filters down below, and you can also apply all of these changes to existing photos in your library as well as stuff you shoot on the fly.

Selfies are getting more and more popular, so it's not a bad idea to make them look better as well as easier to capture -- to that end, the app would be more useful if it launched directly into the front-facing camera view rather than presenting you with options to either take a photo or select a photo. But other than that, this seemingly silly and somewhat insignificant app could actually find a place on the home screen of selfie-obsessed iPhone users. If you want to take it for a spin, download it now from iTunes.

Source: Microsoft released a new selfie app for iOS because YOLO

Smartphone cameras explained: everything you need to know about the snapper in your smartphone

Cameras aren't just for snapping. You can use them for augmented reality and translation apps too. / © ANDROIDPIT Smartphone cameras explained: the basics

Every smartphone camera is different, but they all have the same things in common. They all have a lens, which enables them to see things; they all have a sensor, which takes what the lens sees and turns it into digital data; and they all have software, which analyzes the data and turns it into an image file that you can do something with.

It's the combination of those things that decides how good (or bad!) your image will be, and the following terms are used to give you an idea of what the camera can do.

If your camera's really bad you could always stick an external one on instead. / © Sony Megapixels

Megapixels, or MP for short, are the measurements of how many pixels a camera's image will contain. One megapixel is one million pixels – 1,000 x 1,000 – so a 20 MP image will have 20 million pixels.

Generally speaking, the more pixels you have the better. You can zoom in or crop the image without worrying it'll get all blocky. However, there's more to the quality of the photos than mere numbers, and it's perfectly possible to get a better photo from a 12 MP phone camera than from a 20 MP one.

The lens quality is more important than the number of megapixels. / © XperiaBlog Sensor size

The bigger the sensor, the more it can see and the better the photos it should take. The size of a typical smartphone sensor is around one-third of an inch, but, in some phones, the sensor can be as big as an inch.

The bigger the sensor the bigger the pixels, so in theory at least if you have two phones with the same megapixel count but one has a bigger sensor, that one will produce the better shots.

CCD and CMOS

Smartphone sensors usually come in one of two forms: CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor). Early smartphones used CCD sensors, but most modern phones use the more complex, and until recently more expensive, CMOS sensors.

There are differences between the sensors in different devices, however, so it's important to read reviews and check out device comparisons to discover how well each firm's sensors perform.

Here's an example of a cameraphone sensor, in this case a Samsung one. The sensor here is a 20 MP one. / © SAMSUNG Aperture

Aperture is how much light a lens lets in, and it's expressed in f-stops: f/2.0, f/2.8 and so on. The smaller the number the bigger the aperture and the more light gets in, so if you want really great low-light performance without a flash, for example, you want the lowest aperture you can.

Smaller aperture numbers also indicate that you'll get interesting depth of field effects, where the foreground is clear but the background is blurry.

Aperture: the smaller the number, the better the low light performance. / © Enchanting Kerala ISO and shutter speed

Aperture is part of a trio that affect your photos, and the other two parts are ISO and shutter speed. Shutter speed is how long the camera keeps the lens open to take a picture, and ISO is how sensitive your camera is to the available light. Many camera apps allow you to adjust both of these things.

The bigger the ISO number the more sensitive your camera is to light, so for example, if you're shooting at ISO 100 the camera needs one second to capture the image, while at ISO 800 it only needs 0.125 seconds. That extra sensitivity comes at a cost, though, and that's noise: if you're shooting at really high ISOs you'll see a lot of noise, which manifests itself as a grainy effect. Different cameras handle noise in different ways, but as a rule of thumb, if you're using big numbers noise is inevitable, so you really want to use the lowest ISO possible.

The other thing you can often change is the shutter speed. The longer your shutter is open the more light it'll capture, but it'll also make your camera more vulnerable to shakes and blurred movement. For action shots you want fast shutter speeds; for shooting in low light or trying to take pictures of lightning or fireworks, a long shutter will produce the best results.

Larger ISO numbers mean more noise, which you can see in the right-hand image. / © ANDROIDPIT Image stabilization

There are two kinds of image stabilization: digital image stabilization, which uses software to compensate for slight shakes and to keep the image stable, and optical image stabilization, which uses mechanical means to keep the lens still.

Optical is usually better than digital stabilization, especially in low light. Unless the software is really, really good – and it often isn't – it can't compete with the shake-free footage you get from a lens that moves when the camera does

HD and 4K

HD and 4K are measurements of resolution, just like megapixels, but they're used to describe video. HD means high definition, which is 1,920 pixels x 1,080 lines, and 4K or UltraHD is double that: 3,840 x 2,160 lines. Eventually, we'll get 8K, which is twice the resolution of 4K.

The main advantage of 4K is that you can zoom in dramatically and still be left with an HD recording, which keeps your creative options open. The downside is that 4K recording takes up twice the space of HD, so it's not great for smartphones with limited storage.

Many phones can record 4K video, but hardly any can display the clips in 4K. / © ANDROIDPIT RAW format

Most smartphone images are saved as JPEG image formats, but some high-end devices can also record in RAW. RAW is better for professional photographers because it records nothing other than what the camera sensor saw; JPEG images are optimized and compressed to save space. RAW also understands more levels of brightness, and it's easier to correct a RAW image than a JPEG.

Don't like your camera app? Try an alternative such as Google Camera. / © AndroidPIT Software and apps

The lens is great, the image is stabilized and the sensor is enormous, but bad software can snatch digital defeat from the jaws of victory. Poor JPEG optimization, bad image processing algorithms and overzealous color correction can make a huge horse's arse of your carefully considered photos.

The good news is that you can try an alternative camera app – we quite like Google Camera, and there are stacks of really good third-party camera apps in the Play Store too. But prevention is better than cure, so we'd definitely recommend checking out the camera sections of our in-depth smartphone reviews to help you avoid the duffers.

How important is a good smartphone camera to you? Do you use an alternative camera app? Let us know below.

Source: Smartphone cameras explained: everything you need to know about the snapper in your smartphone

Featured Review: Amazon Fire HD 10

Amazon has been offering a range of Android-powered tablets for a while now, and their most recently launched devices are some of the most accessible offerings yet. Here we have had a chance to try out the Fire HD 10 tablet, Amazon's latest device with a bigger screen that just begs to be used for media entertainment and web browsing. I was never one for the larger tablets myself, regardless of brand, simply because they tend to be a little on the heavier side than something with an 8-inch screen or smaller, and this makes for an uncomfortable use if holding for longer periods of time when playing games or reading books.

To my surprise though the Fire HD 10 is actually quite light compared to other tablets in this size range, most likely due to the plastic build material for the body. It's also rather thin, which no doubt helps to make the tablet a light device. Overall, Amazon has the best chances of making more money the longer they can keep their devices in the hands of users, so making the Fire HD 10 comfortable to hold and enjoyable to use is in their best interest, and it certainly fits into both those categories. How does it stack up against other 10-inch tablets and does the cost and lack of the Play Store make this purchase worth it, or should you simply get a different device that comes with Google's Android? Let's take a look.

Specs

If you're looking at the hardware for the Fire HD 10, you'll immediately notice that it is far from being a powerful device. The specs feel entry level which sort of surprising given the cost, but remember this tablet is more about entertainment and media consumption, like reading books, watching video, and browsing the web, as opposed to playing high-end games and multitasking for work. The Fire HD 10 comes with a 10-inch IPS LCD display featuring a 800 x 1280 resolution, and is powered by a quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz with 1GB of RAM. It also comes with either 16GB or 32GB of storage and it supports external storage via microSD cards up to 128GB. It's fitted with a 5MP rear camera and 720p front camera for video chat, neither of which are anything to write home about but the cameras on this device are more for the opportunity of having them as opposed to not, and aren't meant to take amazing pictures. The battery stats according to Amazon state that the Fire HD 10 boasts up to 8 hours of battery life, although Amazon doesn't list how big the battery capacity is, just that it's non-removable. As stated above the Fire HD 10 is running Fire OS 5, which is based on Android Lollipop.

In The Box

Amazon has done a great job with the packaging in the latest Fire tablet. While the packaging may not seem like much, its brilliantly understated and getting to the stuff Amazon has bundled in with the tablet itself is just as easy as getting to the content once the device is powered on. All too often companies pack everything in the box in such a way that you almost have to tear at stuff to get to things like the chargers or any other accessories. That isn't the case with the Fire HD 10, although this could be because there is plenty enough room to fit everything. Having said that, there isn't a whole lot inside the box other than the tablet, save for the AC adapter and USB charging cable, as well as a small quick start guide. You won't find a lot of extras with the Fire HD 10, so you'll still need to find a pair of earbuds or headphones if you typically like to use them with your device. The good news is that this is an Amazon tablet, so you can bet Amazon also makes it super simple to purchase any accessories that you may want or need that aren't bundled with the device.

Hardware & Build

When it comes to the hardware and the build materials for the Fire HD 10, nothing about it screams premium, but it is built nicely and feels comfortable to hold which are two things that are nearly as important as a premium feel. Amazon also boasts that the Fire HD 10 is almost 2x more durable than the iPad Air 2. Whether or not that is true is something we weren't able to test as I don't have an iPad Air 2, but it's also not something I would not have been willing to test either as dropping tech makes me cringe. The Fire HD 10 is made of a light yet durable soft touch plastic and comes in either black or white. When holding the tablet in portrait mode the sides are completely free of any buttons. On the left side you'll find dual stereo speakers, (more on this in a bit), and on the right side you'll find the microSD card slot. Up on top you'll find the volume rocker and power button, as well as the 3.5mm audio port for plugging in earbuds or headphones and the micro U SB charging port.

What makes this a nice design make up is that both speakers are either on the top or the bottom depending on how you hold it when viewing in landscape mode, which means the speakers aren't resting under your hands during any sort of media consumption. This helps the speakers perform at their absolute best and allow the user to hear the sound as best as possible since they aren't being muffled, which is a common issue with other tablets. This particular detail made games and video much more enjoyable as you generally hold the tablet in landscape mode during either of these two activities. When reading, the speakers likely aren't being used so there's no problem there. On the front of the device you'll find the 720p camera towards the top of the device, and over on the back you'll find the rear facing 5MP camera in the top left corner as well as the Amazon logo in the center.

Performance & Memory

Considering the hardware, I wasn't expecting the Fire HD 10 to be a top performer. In most cases the tablet did just fine with little to no lag or stutter when moving through menus or the different tabs (pages) of the homescreen. Anytime I downloaded anything though and tried to continue browsing through stuff on the tablet, even a smaller app, I encountered a jittery hiccup every few swipes while the download was in progress. This kind of lag in performance didn't give me much hope for gaming which tends to be my primary use for a tablet. Even installing apps felt like a slow process, as it took nearly a full minute to install Vainglory after the app files were downloaded from the Amazon app store. Mind you this was not the actual download process nor the download and installation of extra files after opening the game, rather the act of installing the downloaded apk file.

Once all the game files were downloaded and installed though it mostly played without a hitch. The only real issue I ran into was that of my WiFi router being tempremental which caused server connection issues for Vainglory as it is an online game. There was a bit of sutter once in a great while but otherwise gaming performance was fine. Vainglory is also a fairly intensive game when it comes to graphics, and although the visuals were definitely scaled down automatically, it ran fine, meaning most casual games should play perfectly, which are likely to be the types of games most people would play in something like the Fire HD 10 as hardcore gamers who enjoy mobile gaming would probably opt for something more powerful. With that said, just because Vainglory ran just fine on this device, does not mean every single game which comes with higher-end 3D visuals is going to perform the same. If you're looking for a top of the line mobile gaming experience on a tablet, look elsewhere. I n addition to this, multitasking proved to be mediocre as more apps opened up means more RAM being used, and there isn't exactly a lot of that to go around on the Fire HD 10.

Benchmarks

Normally when reviewing a device we like to get the benchmark tests done to paint a picture of what to expect for the performance during everyday use. Although benchmarks will mean less to the user experience than real-world use, they can give you an idea of how things will feel. The interesting thing about this with the Fire HD 10 is neither 3D Mark, nor Antutu seemed to work on the tablet even after many attempts, despite installing them from Amazon's app store, so we weren't able to test for graphics or for the general performance through AnTuTu. We were able to test Geekbench 3 though and just as expected the Fire HD 10 came out with fairly average scores. Not terrible, not great, simply average. If you're interested in checking out the scores you can view the screenshots which we've added in below.

Battery Life

Amazon boasts up to 8 hours of mixed-use battery life with the Fire HD 10 and this is right around what I was expecting during my own personal time with it. Up to 8 hours of battery use is nothing spectacular, especially in an age where somer tablets are capable of lasting for a full day before needing a recharge. This makes daily use a little disappointing if for whatever reason you'll be away from a power source to charge it for longer than that time period, and for a tablet that's built around media consumption that isn't a good thing. While I wasn't able to run any sort of battery test through Geekbench 3 as we do with other Android devices (this is due to the fact that Geekbench 3 downloaded from the Amazon app store lacks the battery test feature for some reason), I was able to get around 9 hours of battery life during real-world use while doing things like web browsing, streaming music in the background and running a movie a couple of times as well as a little bit o f light reading. When it comes down to it 8 hours for the average user is going to be fine, but if you're a power user or you want to be able to use your tablet continuously throughout the day you'll likely end up a little disappointed in this area. The short of it is that if you want to be able to use the Fire HD 10 for longer than 8 or 9 hours, you'll either need to carry the charger with you and plug in at some point during the day, or carry an external battery pack to keep you topped up.

Software

Amazon's Android-powered devices have always run a forked version of the software, with the latest version being Fire OS 5 based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. This is what you can expect on the Fire HD 10 out of the box. If you've ever used any of the previous Amazon tablets it won't be much different here even though the OS has been updated. Familiar elements are still present like the navigation to all your stuff through a series of tabs laid out as homescreen pages, with headers located towards the top denoting each tab's purpose. One thing users will immediately notice is that Amazon puts purchases front and center. Users will even be greeted by purchase from the lockscreen. As soon as you hit the power button to wake the device you're presented with a random offer or advertisement for an app or game, and these change upon putting the screen to sleep and waking it back up again. Alternatively, there is also a small button in the bottom left corner of the lockscreen which takes you to all of the currently available offers. Putting it simply, Amazon makes buying as easy as possible for the user so should they want to buy stuff they really don't have to try very hard.Beyond this, the software is pretty easy to use as everything else is front and center as well. Fire OS may not be as customizable as Android, but Amazon does make using the tablet simple for everyone by making everything accessible. Getting the app store is easy and once you have some apps downloaded, they appear on the main home screen for later use.

Beyond this, the software is pretty easy to use as everything else is front and center as well. Fire OS may not be as customizable as regular Android, but Amazon does make using the tablet simple for everyone by making everything accessible. Getting the app store is easy and once you have some apps downloaded, they appear on the main home screen for later use. Familiar Android traits are present too, like the Lollipop style navigation buttons, a recents screen where you can swipe away currently opened apps, pages, etc., and the notification shade resides in the same place as it might on something like the Nexus 9, so getting to settings, seeing your notifications, and access different user profiles should feel no different if you already use another Android device running Lollipop forward.

Although you can still only have one Amazon account registered to a device at a time, you can set up multiple user profiles for people to sign in and out of at their leisure as is customary for Lollipop tablets and smartphones. This makes it a great device for families as everyone can set up their own profile with their own apps, books, and other content. Amazon has also built in a native feature to minimize the blue light emitted by the display, called "blue shade," which is accessible right from the notification pull down panel in the quick settings menu. As blue light can mess with your ability to fall asleep, and plenty of people tend to read more on tablets at night, Amazon has integrated blue shade to help people enjoy things like books without lessening their chances at sleep. This is similar to the new night light mode in Play Books which auto adjusts to the time of day to cancel out blue light as time goes on, although you can turn on Blue Shade at any point no matter what you're doing and not just when you're reading. Amazon's Mayday support is also built-in allowing users to get personalized help for the device from an Amazon tech advisor, which is sure to come in handy for quite a few people.

Sound

Amazon designed the Fire HD 10 with the speaker placement in such a way that the audio isn't impeded by being covered up or muffled by your hands.  This is brilliant for video and games. That's about where the brilliance stops though, as the audio quality is not that great and begins to get less and less clear even with the volume turned up only half way. To the tablet's credit the audio does get quite loud, making the audio easier to hear from a further distance which is great if you're cooking or doing some cleaning around the house and you're streaming music. If you're holding the device though the distortion  becomes more apparent since the speakers are closer to you. This may not bother you if you don't care for top quality audio, and so long as you know what to expect out of the device in the sound department you may not be disappointed. If however, you either consider yourself an audiophile or you're just looking for more a clear sound for enjoying content , the Fire HD 10 probably isn't going to cut it for you. Sadly, this isn't what I was expecting out of a tablet which costs $229. Sure, compromises need to be made to keep the device cost down, but comparing this to the NVIDIA SHIELD K1 tablet which costs $29 less and has great audio, you wouldn't expect the audio quality to take such a dive when a less expensive device can deliver a better sounding experience.

Camera

With a 5MP camera on board you shouldn't be expecting any fantastic images to come out of the device. However, having a camera available at all is better than nothing in the event you don't have something else on you to capture the moment. That's assuming the smartphone that is always on your person has a dead battery and you just so happend to have this on you as well. When it comes down to it, camera quality on the Fire HD 10 is pretty terrible. Photos tend to come out grainy no matter the lighting situation, although much less so when there is enough natural light. There is also no optical image stabilization included so you'll need to make sure you hold the tablet extremely still in order to get the clearest picture possible with no blur. Normally this wouldn't be too much of an issue, but because of the size of the tablet holding it still can be difficult.

You can mostly forget about low light shots entirely as you will be hard pressed to get any decent photos worth showing off, as the subjects end up too dark with little detail. There are a few different camera options availabler to you if you plan on using it, including Amazon's "best shot" option which takes a essentially takes two photos and picks the best one for you. There is also an HDR mode you can enable, although it isn't really worth using since the camera doesn't really capture enough detail to pull off the true beauty one can get from HDR images. Lastly there's also a panorama mode if you want to capture larger landscapes that you can fit all in one frame. What's nice in all of this is that Amazon's camera app will recommend when you should enable HDR mode, so at least there's that. The capture quality isn't the worst part about the camera, as that title goes to the extended period of time it takes for the camera to take the picture. This more times than not is liable to make you miss whatever it is you're tyrying to take a picture of, which defeats the purpose of having the camera in the first place. Overall, there's nothing special about the camera on the Fire HD 10 and you'd be better off relying on your smartphone or a less expensive point and shoot for pictures.

The Good

Lightweight design

Big screen is great for watching movies and tv

Comes with free 30 day trial of Amazon Prime

Games ran fine without much issue

Easy access to all of Amazon's content, products etc which is great if you frequently shop via Amazon

The Bad

Battery life is sub par

Audio quality could be much better

screen quality isn't great which is all the more noticeable due to the size of the display

No Play Store which means less apps, although the Amazon app store is growing

Constant offers and advertisements being displayed anytime you wake the screen can quickly become annoying, making the experience feel a little bit obtrusive

Lower memory causes stuttering issues with performance

Camera quality is terrible with poor low light performance

Final Thoughts

Amazon's range of Fire tablets have been quite popular, and although the most recent models like the Fire HD 10 haven't been out for more than a few months, they're likely to follow the same trend. They offer up a decent experience for those who tend to get more average use out of tablet, and when that usage ends up being focused more on things like music, books, video, and web browsing. Although the Fire HD 10 is capable of playing some games, it won't substitute for a high-end gaming tablet and as such should not be your choice if you're looking to get the best of the best for mobile gaming performance.

Should you buy the Fire HD 10?

That depends on what it is you're looking for. If all you want is something to read your Kindle books and watch some video content here and there with the occasional game, and if you're already invested into the Amazon ecosystem, i.e. Prime instant video, shopping on Amazon, etc., then this is a great tablet to have, although keep in mind you can pick up the Fire HD 8, Fire HD 6, and all new Fire for much less than this model. You won't save as much with the Fire HD 10 as you will Amazon's other tablet offerings, but it does come with the largest display out of the four mentioned and if this is a factor then you can't go wrong with it. Also consider though that you can pick up other tablets in the same price range which offer better specs, better performance, and a better user experience, with the Google Play Store and a larger offering of apps. The SHIELD K1 is a great example coming in at $199. When it comes down to it, you'll want to weight out your options on wheth er or not this is the tablet best suited for your needs and wants. It's worth mentioning that this would be a great step up for anyone who is using a traditional Kindle e-reader.

Source: Featured Review: Amazon Fire HD 10

Never regift again! 3 apps and sites that turn bum presents into cash

Years ago, a friend gave me a concrete rat statue for Christmas. (Seriously.) That was the last time we exchanged gifts.

No doubt you've also unwrapped a package, only to be unpleasantly surprised. If you find yourself in this situation this year, these three apps and websites can help you turn your version of the concrete rat into cash.

OfferUp helps ditch bad gifts — for free 

OfferUp is a website, and a set of Android and iOS apps, that let you snap photos of unwanted items, write quick descriptions, add prices, and see if you get any takers. It's much easier than listing products on eBay, and it's much more visual than sites such as Craigslist.

Listings are localized, sales are auction-style or fixed-price, and sellers and buyers rate each other after interactions. Buyers and sellers can arrange to meet in person someplace neutral. And you communicate via the app, so your email and contact information remains private.

OfferUp also has a free, voluntary program called "TruYou," designed to authenticate the identity of its members using Facebook and an image of a driver's license (which you snap with your smartphone camera). Items listed by TruYou members have blue accents or borders, so they're easy to spot.

OfferUp's apps and website are easy-to-use, thanks to their clean interfaces. And best of all, neither buyers nor sellers pay fees for transactions. "OfferUp is not currently monetizing," according to a OfferUp spokesperson. "Right now, OfferUp is entirely focused on building the best possible experience for its users."

If you have even one unwanted gift, OfferUp is definitely worth a try.

Let eBay Valet sell your worst presents

As mentioned, selling bad gifts on eBay can be complicated. You need to make decisions about auction types, shipping options, and more. However, the auction site greatly simplified the process with eBay Valet, in which the company lists and sells your items for you. All you have to do is ship the unwanted stuff (as long as it meets eBay's requirements), and the company does all the rest — for 20 to 40 percent of the cost of a transaction.

However, eBay will waive the Valet service fees if you print one of its shipping labels on Dec. 26 or Dec. 27. The company's goal is to make more people aware of the Valet service, and it's worth a try — as long as you act quickly, post Christmas.

Cardpool wants your unwanted gift cards

Maybe you received an Olive Garden gift card at your company holiday party, and you can't stand the Italian restaurant chain. Or perhaps you're allergic to shellfish, and your crazy aunt sent you a free meal card at Red Lobster. Either way, Cardpool, a website with a corresponding iOS app, can help. Cardpool lets you sell unwanted gift cards for a percentage of their value. A $50 Olive Garden card, for instance, can net as much as $35.

You can also buy someone else's unwanted gift cards on Cardpool and save a little money in the process. A $300 Best Buy gift card costs $286.50, for example. That's not a huge discount, but this time of year, every little bit helps.

Source: Never regift again! 3 apps and sites that turn bum presents into cash

Which smartphone OS wins 2015? Android Marshmallow vs. iOS 9 vs. Windows 10 Mobile

You're in the market for a new smartphone (maybe your first smartphone), but which digital horse should you put your money behind? Choosing a smartphone OS is a bigger choice than you realize. Thankfully, if you can't decide whether to pick iPhone, one of the many Android phones, or Windows Mobile, we're here to help. We'll break the battle down into categories and find a winner for each. Just pick what matters most to you, count up the wins in those categories, and you have a recommendation.

Jump to: Affordability, interface, and apps Battery life, OS updates, customization, and communication Peripherals, cloud, photos, voice assistants, and connectivity Security, maps, camera, simplicity, and summary Affordability

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Winner: Android

Apple doesn't make budget devices, and the latest iPhone is always among the most expensive handsets on the market, costing $200 with a two-year contract and $650 without. Last year's iPhone 6 comes in at $100 less. The two year-old iPhone 5S is as close as Apple gets to budget at about $200 cheaper, but it's still pricey.

Microsoft's main hardware partner Nokia (which it now owns) was always good at producing quality hardware at relatively low prices. There are a wide range of older Windows Phones at varying price points, and finally a few that push the limit and rival Android and iOS on specs. Hardware manufacturers like Samsung, ZTE, LG, Lenovo, and Huawei were Windows Phone 8.1 partners, but it's unclear who'll be making Windows 10 Mobile handsets. We expect to see some cheap handsets in the near future, but Microsoft's Lumia is likely to be the only flagship.

For sheer scale and variety nothing competes with Android. There's a huge choice of low-cost handsets from a wide variety of different manufacturers and the platform has been deliberately optimized to run on low-end hardware. The fact that Android also leads the field in free apps makes it the natural choice for the budget-conscious. Chances are, if it's a smartphone by HTC, Samsung, Sony, ZTE, Huawei, or LG, it's running Android.

Interface

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Winner: Tie

Led by Windows Phone, all three platforms have gravitated toward a minimalist, flat, fast, colorful user interface. The big difference is that many Android manufacturers have added their own user interfaces on top of stock Android, and so your mileage will vary. The basic structure with customizable home screens, an app drawer, and pull down notifications is standard, but there's much more variation on Android than you'll find on the other two platforms.

The Android Lollipop roll-out ushered in Google's "Material Design," which is a minimalist look with simple animations that's intended to create a new continuity across the platform and in Google's apps. It's stylish and slick, and it runs on around 30 percent of Android devices, at the time of writing. The aesthetic hasn't changed much in the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow release, which brings a few subtle refinements, but you'll need a new device or a Nexus right now to see it. App developers are still adjusting, and it will be a while before Android 6.0 Marshmallow represents a big share of Android users.

After a major redesign in iOS 7, Apple's platform is bright and modern-feeling. The slick animations as you navigate around give a sense of depth, and it's easy to understand. Under the new paint job, this is still the same iOS that came out in 2007. Still, many have complained that the new version of iOS is hard on the eyes. There are settings to turn off its offending animations. Apple has made further refinements in iOS 9, but the aesthetic remains largely unchanged.

Windows 10 Mobile is based on a grid of "Live Tiles," which can be arranged and resized to suit the owner. It looks and acts much like Windows 10 PCs and tablets, and there's a consistency here that Microsoft's desktop and Xbox users will find familiar. Windows Mobile can still sometimes feel overly stylish and sluggish compared to iOS and Android. It is very customizable, though, and Windows 10 Mobile definitely feels slicker than previous versions. The latest Windows 10 Mobile hardware also supports Continuum, an intriguing feature that allows you to dock your phone, and switch to a desktop interface. You can throw it up on a big screen and use a mouse and keyboard with it, effectively making your phone a PC. 

Apps

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Winner: Tie

We can bump Windows Mobile straight out of the running here, because it trails way behind Android and iOS when it comes to overall app numbers and app quality.

Android apps: 1.6 million

iOS apps: 1.5 million

Windows Mobile apps: ???

Traditionally, iOS has been a more lucrative platform for developers and easier to develop for, so there has been a tendency for new apps to appear there first, but that is changing as Android's market share continues to grow. In the United States, iOS still leads the way, but developers elsewhere are increasingly targeting Android first. The Play Store still has a higher percentage of free apps than the App Store.

Android also benefits from the latest and greatest versions of Google's apps, which are sorely missed on Windows Mobile. Microsoft has a "Universal Apps" plan for apps to run on multiple device types with common code, and it's supposed to be easy to port Android or iOS apps over, but we'll have to wait and see how developers respond. In terms of variety and quality, we have to give this one to iOS, but it's a narrow win.

App store usability

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Winner: iOS

None of the app stores offer an excellent user experience, and it can be tough to sift through the thousands of apps on offer to find what you really want. In terms of recommendations and curated charts, the Apple App Store maintains a slender lead over Google's Play Store. Microsoft's Windows Mobile store definitely lags behind in terms of usability and aesthetic

Alternative app stores and sideloading

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Winner: Android

It's relatively easy to sideload apps (install them from your PC using a USB cable or alternate download method) on Android and there are a lot of alternative app stores beyond the Play Store, although sideloading can open you up to the risk of malware. Both Apple and Microsoft are opposed to third-party app stores and expect users to stick to their app stores. If you want a wider choice of apps and easy sideloading then your choice is obvious. Android is more open than its competitors and is more geek friendly.

Battery life and management Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Winner: Android

As one of the biggest bugbears for smartphone owners, battery life is a huge factor. It's difficult to compare the three platforms because there's no common hardware. We could say iOS is optimized to squeeze the most out of the battery per mAh rating, but you can buy an Android device with a much bigger battery that will easily outlast the iPhone.

In Android you can see your battery usage at a glance, broken down by app, with an estimate of how much battery life you have left. With Lollipop, Google baked a basic battery saver feature into Android, and Marshmallow has added the ability to configure battery optimization for apps. Most manufacturers also offer some kind of battery saving feature, which allows you to tweak performance or turn off background syncing for specific apps when the battery hits a certain level.

Windows 10 Mobile has a battery saver option that shows estimated remaining life, battery usage across your apps, and allows you to turn off background usage for apps or other non-essential features to save battery.

Apple introduced more detailed battery usage statistics by app in iOS 8, and a battery saving mode — called Low Power Mode — followed in iOS 9. We had a terrible time with battery life in iOS 7, and the bigger screens in the latest iPhones cancel out improvements made in iOS 8. There have been further improvements in power efficiency in iOS 9, but the iPhone 6S has a smaller battery than the iPhone 6, and the battery in the 6S Plus is exactly the same as its predecessor, so there's no tangible benefit. Apple has lost a lot of ground in the battery wars.

OS Updates

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Winner: iOS

All three platforms are updated on a pretty regular basis. There are big releases with new features and occasional redesigns every few months, and smaller releases to deal with bug fixes a little more frequently than that. Microsoft and Apple maintain greater control over the software, so it's easier for them to roll out updates and compatible devices tend to upgrade to the latest version in a timely fashion.

Apple always leaves behind a couple older devices each year when new software comes out, so it's not entirely free of fragmentation, but it does better than Microsoft or Google. For example, Windows Phone 7 devices can't be updated to Windows Phone 8, and the Windows Phone 8.1 update to Windows 10 Mobile has been postponed until early 2016.

If you opt for a Nexus Android device then you'll get the latest updates quickly, but if you don't, you may never get an update. Samsung, Sony, and LG have finally begun providing some updates, but you're at their mercy and the mercy of your wireless carrier, which also demands the right to test and release all new software updates for Windows Mobile and Android. Apple is exempt.

At last count, 0.5 percent of Android devices are running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and 7 percent of Windows phones are running Windows 10 Mobile, compared to 71 percent of iOS devices running iOS 9.

Customizability

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Winner: Android

There are a lot of different elements to customizability, but we can state unequivocally that this is one of Android's strengths.

Out of the box, you can customize your Android experience in a variety of ways.

You can install alternative launchers that will change the look of your user interface.

You can set up your lock screen and multiple home screens with backgrounds, resizable widgets, and shortcuts. Both iOS and Windows Mobile offer limited options.

You can set up backgrounds and shortcuts.

With Windows Mobile, you have re-sizable Live Tiles and color schemes to choose from, and you can add background images. In iOS 8, Apple added support for at-a-glance style widgets, but they're confined to the Notification Center.

Google has always allowed you to choose your default keyboard in Android. Microsoft has gradually improved the keyboard in Windows Mobile, but it's still locked down to the default option. Apple has opened up third-party keyboard support in iOS 8, and there are more options now, but it still has a way to go to match Android. Beyond the keyboard, you can set third-party apps as defaults for all kinds of things in Android that are locked down in iOS and Windows Mobile.

Rooting, bootloaders, and jailbreaking

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Winner: Android

We've looked at how to root your Android phone or tablet before. It's not for everyone, but if you want root access and complete control over your device, then rooting is the way to get it. Rooting gives you access to more apps, the latest OS updates without waiting, new software skins to get the aesthetic you want, the chance to get rid of bloatware from carriers and manufacturers, potential tweaks to boost your device's speed and battery life, and more.

Many Android OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) also offer a way to unlock the bootloader, which determines how the operating system loads up on your device. Microsoft and Apple are completely opposed to this kind of thing. Unlocking bootloaders and rooting is possible on some devices with Windows Mobile, and you can even install Android apps, but it's not advisable. Jailbreaking is an option for iOS, which lets you download and install apps from outside the App Store and bypass some other limitations.

Calls and messaging

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Winner: Tie

Basic calling and messaging functionality is good on all three platforms. Google has made moves to fold everything into Hangouts, so you can send messages via Wi-Fi, data network, or SMS. You can also make video calls online. FaceTime and iMessage are basically exactly the same thing on the iOS platform. Skype is Microsoft's answer, but it's separate from your standard SMS. Skype works on every platform; Hangouts doesn't work on Windows Mobile; iMessages and FaceTime are only for iOS and Mac OS X.

Email

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Winner: Tie

The default email apps on Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile are very easy to use and quick to set up. You can pull in multiple email accounts and view them in a single inbox if you desire. Android and iOS have a huge range of third-party email apps available as well.

Jump to: Affordability, interface, and apps Battery life, OS updates, customization, and communication Peripherals, cloud, photos, voice assistants, and connectivity Security, maps, camera, simplicity, and summary Peripherals

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Winner: iOS

The average iPad or iPhone owner spends more money on more things than the average Android or Windows Mobile device owner, and Apple has built up a great ecosystem of peripherals for its phones and tablets. There are far more peripherals and cases aimed at the iPhone than any other device, but something like Samsung's latest Galaxy S6 would be a close second.

On the other hand, Android and Windows Mobile devices have adopted the Micro USB standard, whereas Apple insists on its proprietary Lightning cable, which means it's much easier to find a charger if you're not an iPhone owner. This often means you have to splash out on an overpriced Apple adapter, which are known to break. Peripheral manufacturers may still go after iOS as their main target, but it's very rare to find something without Micro USB support.

The USB Type-C ports on the latest Nexus phones are the future, because they offer more outputs through a single cable and they're reversible, unlike Micro USB, but the peripheral market is only just starting to gear up for USB Type-C.

Cloud services

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Winner: Android

Apple is the one lagging behind when it comes to cloud storage and automatic backups. Microsoft's OneDrive and Google Drive both offer 15GB for free and cross-platform support (although Google Drive doesn't work with Windows Mobile). You only get 5GB with iCloud, and it only works with Windows, Mac, and iOS. If you need a lot of additional space, then Google Drive was the cheapest at $2 per month for 100GB ($24 for the year), but Apple and Microsoft dropped their prices to match. Apple charges $1 per month for 50GB, and Microsoft charges $2 per month for 100GB. It's worth noting that if you subscribe to Office 365 Personal, you get 1TB of storage, 60 minutes of Skype calls per month, and all the latest Office apps for $7 per month or $70 for the year.

Photo backup

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Winner: Android

If you use the Photos app in Android, then you can automatically backup all of your photos and videos. You can also use Photos on iOS. OneDrive allows you to automatically back up photos on Android, iOS, or Windows Phone. You can only backup to iCloud on iOS, and it offers less free space at 5GB compared to 15GB with Google Drive and OneDrive.

It's also worth noting that Google's Photos app lets you backup an unlimited number of photos or videos at standard size for free, only full-sized files count against your allowance.

Voice assistants

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Winner: Windows Mobile

We had a look at Cortana vs Siri vs Google Now a while back. All three can interpret and act on a wide variety of voice commands. Siri is more like a straightforward assistant for setting calendar appointments, searching the Web, or making calls. Google Now has an extra element, in that it can pre-emptively offer useful information. If you allow it to gather data on you then it might suggest directions to a place you recently searched for, or let you know the latest score for your favorite sports team. Android 6.0 Marshmallow introduced Now on Tap, which can provide information within the app you're using, whether it's info on a track you're listening to, or throwing up details on the restaurant mentioned in the email you're reading.

Cortana falls somewhere in between Siri and Google Now encompassing elements of both. There's an attempt to push things further by offering access to functions within apps and reminder prompts linked to specific people in your contacts. Cortana can also work contextually within apps, and seems to handle voice recognition better than its competitors. Microsoft has really taken its time getting Cortana right and it has the potential to be a big win for the Windows Mobile platform. Of course, you can now download Cortana on iOS and Android.

Connectivity

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Winner: Tie

All the mobile platforms support Bluetooth and Wi-Fi as standard. Android and Windows Mobile led the way with NFC (near field communication) for easy wireless transfers and mobile payments, but Apple included NFC in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. It also launched Apple Pay with some major partners, which could close the mobile payment gap very quickly. Android now has Android Pay, too. NFC can also be used for quick file transfers, tapping phones together to share contacts or Web pages, or tapping on supported speakers to stream music. There's nothing to really separate the platforms here.

Jump to: Affordability, interface, and apps Battery life, OS updates, customization, and communication Peripherals, cloud, photos, voice assistants, and connectivity Security, maps, camera, simplicity, and summary

Security

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Winner: iOS

Much has been made of the supposedly "toxic hell stew" that is Android, but the threat of malware is grossly exaggerated by the competition. The truth is that most people will never encounter a problem because they don't go outside the Play Store for apps. Specific manufacturers like Samsung have taken extra efforts to beef up security for the enterprise market. But the slovenly nature of updates on many Android devices can seriously delay important security patches.

Speedy updates are now more important than ever because security breaches are becoming more serious. As long as Android lags behind in the update world, its devices will be less secure.

Apple is already firmly entrenched in corporate America and has also worked on improved security for general consumers, most notably with Touch ID. The tight oversight that Apple has on apps and the ability to push updates out to more devices, more quickly, gives it a definite edge over Android. The company also encrypts data in iMessage and its other apps.

Windows Mobile is not as widely used, and that means MDM programs focus on iOS and Android, but Microsoft is certainly working to improve security and woo the business world.

Maps

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Winner: Android

All three platforms offer a good maps solution, despite what you've heard. Key features are pretty similar, you can download maps for offline use, get accurate estimates based on current traffic conditions, and turn-by-turn directions for driving or walking. They all work well and should get you where you're going.

Still, the scale and quality of Google Maps is unsurpassed. It has more points of interest and it is generally more detailed than Bing Maps or Apple Maps, but the accuracy can vary from place to place.

Camera

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Winner: iOS

This is another area where Apple extracts maximum value from the hardware it offers. The 12-megapixel camera in the iPhone 6S has been numerically surpassed by Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S6 at 16-megapixels and Windows Mobile phones like the Lumia 950 at 20 megapixels, but there's more to a great camera than just the megapixel count.

In the past, we've argued that Apple does the best job capturing lighting, coloring, and other details, but the latest Android smartphones are casting some doubt on that assertion. The iPhone 6S Plus also has a noticeably better camera than the iPhone 6S. Some phones from LG, Samsung, Huawei, and others take excellent photos now, and some offer manual mode, which isn't available on iOS yet.

The camera apps on each platform are very good and very fast. For ease of use and best results without tweaking, the iOS camera app takes the cake. There's more variation on Android simply because OEMs tend to add their own camera apps with lots of features, some good, some a bit gimmicky, but we'd still take Apple's camera any day of the week.

Simplicity

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Winner: Tie

All three of the platforms are relatively intuitive and easy to pick up. If you were looking for a device for an elderly relative, or a technophobe then you'll find some specialist offerings on Android, but they tend to scale down what's possible. Manufacturers like Samsung also include options like "Easy mode" which make the interface bigger and simplify the whole experience, or you can opt for a third-party app to do the same. There are lots of good apps aimed at the elderly on Android and iOS as well.

There has been a perception that Android is more complicated than iOS, but it's not really true. There's no need to dive into the customization options if you don't want to. All three platforms offer a good range of accessibility features.

Out of the box Windows Mobile is probably the most readable. If you're willing to do a little tweaking and dig into the accessibility features then there's little to choose between them.

Summing up

Counting up the wins Android scores 8, iOS scores 6, Windows Mobile scores 1, and there were 5 ties. Realistically, different categories will be important to different people, so you should just pay attention to the ones that count for you and make your decision based on that. They are all good platforms with far more similarities than differences, so you can't really go wrong.

Android

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Android is a great all-rounder which offers by far the greatest choice. Thanks to great support from companies like Samsung and LG, there are more handsets at different price points, a much wider variety of customization options, and greater freedom to tweak your device if you choose to do so.

Google's apps and prowess when it comes to cloud services also weigh in here, and if you're a big user of Google services already, Android definitely makes the most sense for you. One of its strengths is also one of its greatest weaknesses, and that's the old fragmentation argument. It's hard to discuss Android as a single experience, because there is a big gap between a premium flagship and a budget release, though Google is taking steps to close that gap.

Feature Rank Feature Rank Affordability 1 Email 1 Interface 1 Peripherals 2 Apps 2 Cloud services 1 App store 2 Photo backup 1 Alt app stores 1 Voice assistant 2 Battery life 1 Connectivity 1 Updates 3 Security 3 Customizability 1 Maps 1 Rooting 1 Camera 2 Calls & messaging 1 Simplicity 1 iOS

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The downside for iOS is the premium price tag, walled garden, lack of customization options, and the underdeveloped cloud services.Apple's iOS is a slick platform that has matured well, and it offers an accessible, uniform experience. It has the best official library of apps, a huge range of interesting peripherals, and an excellent camera app that sums up Apple's focus on making things easy for the user. Apple also has tighter control, which means updates are rolled out quickly across the board and security is generally better, partly due to the popularity of iOS devices in the enterprise.

Feature Rank Feature Rank Affordability 3 Email 1 Interface 1 Peripherals 1 Apps 1 Cloud services 3 App store 1 Photo backup 3 Alt app stores 2 Voice assistant 3 Battery life 2 Connectivity 1 Updates 1 Security 1 Customizability 3 Maps 3 Rooting 2 Camera 1 Calls & messaging 1 Simplicity 1 Windows Mobile

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Windows Mobile is playing catchup, just like Windows Phone before it. Microsoft struggles to keep up with the pace set by Apple and Google. The new platform is solid and there are some intriguing improvements in Windows 10 Mobile, but we can't overlook the lack of apps and the lack of quality in the apps that do exist when compared to the big two. In terms of general usability and basic phone functions, Windows Mobile is on par, and Cortana is impressive. As Microsoft makes a play for cloud domination, exploits its popular Office suite, and takes steps to create a unified experience across devices, it may become a more attractive prospect, particularly for business users, but beyond Cortana it's tough to see a good reason to choose Windows Mobile right now.

Feature Rank Feature Rank Affordability 2 Email 1 Interface 1 Peripherals 3 Apps 3 Cloud services 2 App store 3 Photo backup 2 Alt app stores 3 Voice assistant 1 Battery life 3 Connectivity 1 Updates 2 Security 2 Customizability 2 Maps 2 Rooting 3 Camera 3 Calls & messaging 1 Simplicity 1

We've updated this post many times and will continue to update it, as new versions of iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile arrive.

Jump to: Affordability, interface, and apps Battery life, OS updates, customization, and communication Peripherals, cloud, photos, voice assistants, and connectivity Security, maps, camera, simplicity, and summary

Updated on 12-26-2015 by Simon Hill: Changed to reflect the latest platform versions, Android 6.0 Marshmallow, iOS 9, and Windows 10 Mobile.

Battle of the best browsers: Edge vs. Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Safari vs. Opera vs. IE

Which camera-obsessed Windows Phone is best? Lumia 950XL vs. Lumia 1020

Pixel C vs. iPad Pro Spec Comparison

Information Technology

Technology & Electronics

Windows Mobile

Windows 10 Mobile

Source: Which smartphone OS wins 2015? Android Marshmallow vs. iOS 9 vs. Windows 10 Mobile

Santa brought you an Apple Watch? Here’s what to do first

If you were lucky enough to receive an Apple Watch as a present this year, you'll no doubt be keen to see what it offers, and what you can do with it.

To start you'll need to pair it with an iPhone 5 or later, running iOS 9 or later. This is straightforward enough, go to Settings > Bluetooth on your phone and make sure the feature is enabled. Press and hold the side button (next to the digital crown) on your Watch to turn it on, and once you've selected a language, tap Start Pairing on your watch, and on your iPhone.

An animation will play on your Watch. Hold your phone over this, centering the Watch in the camera's viewfinder, until you see a message stating the Watch is paired. You can always pair it manually if things don't work out or you don't see the pairing animation.

On the iPhone, tap Set Up as New Apple Watch and choose which wrist you plan to wear the Watch on. Tap Agree when faced with the terms and conditions.

Sign in to your Apple account and the review the settings. Services like Siri and Location will be synced between devices.

You can set a passcode for the Apple Watch (the device automatically locks when you take it off your wrist), and then sync your iPhone apps to the Watch. Not all of the apps you have on your iPhone will be added to the watch, only the compatible ones. When you browse and buy new apps on your iPhone you'll be able to see if there's a Watch app included as well. The Featured section in the Watch app (on your phone) contains a good selection of apps to get you started.

You can install all apps or just sync Mail, Contacts and Messages, and choose which apps to install later on. Removing any apps you don't want or use is easy enough and done through the Watch app on your phone.

There's a good chance you'll receive too many notifications on your Watch, and it will be pinging and tapping you on the wrist repeatedly, so you'll want to adjust this which, like most things, you can do through the iPhone app. Go to Notifications section.

Once that's finished, you're ready to start using the Watch. If there's an update for WatchOS available, you'll want to install that, which (again) you can do through the Watch app on your iPhone.

Learn your way around

Once you're up and running you can spend time getting to know Watch and learn what's possible with it.

To wake the watch, just angle the screen towards you. If you don't want to move your wrist to see what's on screen, you can set it so a tap will wake things up.

The Watch's digital crown acts as a home button, and is also used for scrolling and summoning Siri. To change the default watch face press down on the existing design, and you can choose an alternative from the selection that pops up.

You can choose which apps to have as glances (the information you require is shown "at a glance"), and these can be accessed by swiping up from the watch face screen. The first glance screen shows you that Watch is connected, and lets you toggle airplane mode, do not disturb or silent modes on or off, and also ping your iPhone-- handy if you've misplaced it.

Scrolling from right to left takes you to the activity monitor (which shows Move, Exercise and Stand progress), music player (control the music on your phone), heart rate monitor, battery remaining indicator (you can switch to power reserve here if the juice is too low), the calendar, stocks, maps, world clock, weather and any other glance-friendly apps you've installed.

A lot of things you can do with the watch can be controlled through Siri. You can use her to start a song playing on your phone, for example. While Siri can be summoned by pressing the crown, the hands free approach of just saying "Hey Siri" at the Watch works very well.

The Camera app acts as a remote snapper for taking photos with your phone, and there's a 3 second delay option to avoid you having lots of shots with your wrist in front of your face. Photos lets you view images on your watch.

If you intend you use Watch with Apple Pay, set it up through the iPhone app and then double-click the side button on the watch to call up the credit card you added, ready to use with an Apple Pay reader.

Apple Watch is a great device, and I'm sure you'll get plenty of enjoyment from it.

Source: Santa brought you an Apple Watch? Here's what to do first

Photo apps to help you shoot like a pro

Photo apps to help you shoot like a pro

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Jefferson Graham runs down 5 Photo apps to help you shoot like a pro on #TalkingTech.

Camera+ icon(Photo: Camera+)

VENICE BEACH - We're shooting more photos with our smartphones than ever, and they're getting better and better each year.

So are the apps--I have a list of 5 today that can help you shoot like you a pro.

--Camera+ ($3.99, Apple only) lets you set exposure, white balance and focus, for those times when automatic just ain't cutting it, and lets you use your iPhone flash for fill-in, instead of those overbearing, washed out images we've come to associate with smartphone flash.

--Slow Shutter (99 cents, Apple only) is fun for night shots, when you need to let in more light, or times when you just want to have fun. Check out the shots of moving cars at Venice Beach in the accompanying video, where I dragged the shutter. (On Android, try the Camera FV-5 app, which is free.)

--You want to shoot like a pro--you'll need to take great portraits where people look terrific. Many of us turn to Photoshop for facial retouching to bring out the best--now there's an app, FaceTune, where many similar features are available, for just $3.99 (Apple and Android.) You can lighten or slim a face, whiten teeth and fix red eye.

Facetune app for photo retouching (Photo: Facetune)

--Speaking of editing, the best all around editing app is Snapseed, which had a big update this year, with plenty of tools to keep you busy for hours.

You can crop, rotate, add a vignette, add contrast, drama or vintage film looks to your smartphone shot. A must for every shooter. (Free, Apple and Android.)

--Finally, let's end with another shooting app and you probably already have it. If you haven't used all the tools in your iPhone or Android camera app--get to know them.

The iPhone app added better exposure control and time-lapse and slow motion videos are lots of fun. The camera in the new Google Nexus 5X and 6P phones are the best ones we've seen to date in an Android, shooting faster and in lower light, than ever before.

That's our 5 top apps to help you shoot like a pro. Let's see what you come up with this holiday season. Share your pics with us on Twitter @yourtake, and feel free to drop a line to me with any questions or concerns on Twitter as well, where I'm @jeffersongraham.

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App Finder: Top animated GIF makers

Animated GIFs are all set to become the new emoji. The flipbook style animations are commonly used on message board and forums and are becoming more and more popular on social media sites like Facebook. These apps can help you find or create your own to share with family and friends.

Giphy Cam: With a recent update, users now can create GIFs by importing photos and videos from their camera rolls, trim the clip, apply filters, text and more. Cost: Free for iOS. Find it:giphy.com/apps

DSCO:Pronounced "disco," this app lets you create short GIF animations up to 2.5 seconds long, add a filter, and then share it. DSCO will save both a GIF and MP4 video to your camera roll for each shot if you want to share it later. Cost: Free for iOS. Find it:app.adjust.com/41b35f

Boomerang: Launched in October by Instagram this video app produces GIF-style clips by taking a one-second burst of five photos. This is converted into a mini video loop which is automatically stored on the phone and can be shared to Instagram or Facebook. Cost: Free on iOS and Android. Find it: blog.instagram.com/post/131684343987/boomerang-from-instagram

Live GIF: If you have an iPhone 6 or 6S, you can use this app to convert your live photos into GIFs and videos. It also allows users to share the GIFs outside of iOS/Apple to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or WhatsApp. Cost: 1.99 for iOS. Find it: livegif.priime.com

FEATURED APP

Picjoy: If you're tired of losing track of photos among the thousands in your picture library on your phone or computer, this app is here to help. It gathers a collection of information about each photograph such as the date, season, weather condition, holiday, possible event, nearby landmarks, etc. Once the data is analyzed and recorded, it promises that you can "find any image in seconds, regardless of where it's stored." It also has a feature that lets you create a photo journal. Cost: Free for iOS. Find it: picjoyapp.com

Source: App Finder: Top animated GIF makers