Most of us aren't avid gamers that spend hours every day playing, but most of us do enjoy an escape at times. If you're looking for something completely different than a card game on your smartphone, there's an interesting augmented reality game called Ingress that you may want to check out. Leveraging the power of your smartphone combined with your location emerges you into the game wherever you may be looking for something called XM. The best analogy I can think of is a virtual capture the flag game with lots of other people. Locations in your physical world will be listed as portals that contain the all important XM, which when visited requires certain action for the game play. You could end up discovering all kinds of new places all around you whether you are at home or visiting an unfamiliar place. If you've never really experienced augmented reality, this may be your gateway to this emerging technology!: and#160;https://ingress.com

In my previous tip, I told you about the possibility of having your smartphone hijacked while it's plugged into a public charging station. Road warriors, especially those that spend a lot of time abroad that want the option of connecting to a public USB based charger should look into getting a charge blocker. These inexpensive USB adapters will not allow data transmissions to occur but will allow electricity to flow to charge your smartphone or tablet. Since the USB interface is designed to both charge devices and allow data access, limiting what can happen when you're connecting to anything is a good idea. The problem with the juice jacking threat is that there's just no way to know by looking at a charging station to know if it's been tampered with. As we suggested previously, it's always better to use your own charger through an electrical outlet, but when a USB port is your only option, a charge blocking device from companies like https://chargedefense.com will provide you with the extra security that give you peace of mind.

Have you noticed that more options are showing up in lots of public places that allow you to charge your smartphone via a USB port? But did you know that you could become a victim of a scam that can actually be perpetrated with these USB ports? It's called 'juice jacking' which is when the device you connect to for a charge actually attempts to connect to your device to access data. Depending upon the type of phone your using, you may be able to see how easy it is by plugging your smartphone into a USB port on your computer. If you see a window pop up with the file folders from your phone, nefarious charging stations may be able to do the same thing. I'd be much more concerned about this scam in smaller airports in foreign countries, but it certainly could happen to anyone, anywhere. The good news is that it's easy to avoid becoming a victim by always using your own charger via an electrical outlet instead of a USB port on a public charging station. If you want to have the option of using a foreign USB port as a charger safely, tomorrow I'll tell you about a simple device that will make sure you're only getting juice and not jacked!

"Measure twice, cut once" is one of the many tips you'll hear from anyone that's ever had to build something. Having the right tool for the job is another way to make things go smoother. Since it all starts with the initial measurements and subsequent calculations, the Mobile Pro app from Dewalt is worth considering. This powerful app made for pros has lots of functional calculators and conversion features essential for calculating areas. Beyond those tools, it has lots of other helpful information for referencing common questions. The app lets you save your work or share it with others that are involved in your project. Knowing how many bags of concrete to buy for your slab or how many linear feet of all the materials necessary for building out a room can be done with this awesome app. http://dewalt.cengage.com/MobilePro/download

Our annual summer road trips provide us with lots of opportunities to discover new interesting places here in the US. If you're like me, you love finding the path less traveled by talking to the locals wherever you happen to be. When the insider knowledge isn't available, there are lots of web resources that can help you find awesome side trips, including one of my favorites at https://RoadTrippers.com Just type in your starting and ending points to start finding things your interested in along your intended path. By using the website to build your trip plan, you can easily determine how much time an extra stop or point of interest might take along with the potential gas consumed. Zoom into any part of your path to really see what's possible, save your trip and then transfer it to your smartphone so you can get in-car directions to everything you plan on seeing. If you're pressed for time or just too lazy to build your own road trip, you can start with someone else's trip and make adjustments to suit your taste.

No matter how much you may try to keep your smartphone clean, it's going to be full of bacteria that loves living on your devices. If you're afraid of touching the door handle to a public restroom, you should be more afraid of your phone as it's been suggested that it's eighteen times the filth of a restroom door knob. The device itself along with how we typically store it in dark, warm places provides everything that bacterial want to thrive. Constantly wiping your phone off with a harsh chemical wipe can do damage to your touch screen, so that's not a good option. A scientifically proven method of keeping your phone sanitized is available from the folks at https://www.phonesoap.com The approach they take is to blanket your smartphone with UV light, which allows them to disinfect your device while it's charging. When you first hear about this method, it may seem a little out there, but a video shot during a multi-day lap test shows just how effective it can be. Watch the lab test video and learn more at: https://www.phonesoap.com

Protecting your accounts online requires diligence and if you have a Google account, there's a tool you should know about. You can easily see what devices have connected to your account and when to sniff out unauthorized access. The 'Recently used devices' screen (http://bit.ly/2EFipxt) provides a list of every device that's successfully logged into your account and a general location within the past twenty eight days Should you detect an unauthorized device in the list, you can tap the link to secure your account and start by changing your password. If everything looks good, take a extra couple of minutes and do a security checkup while you are thinking of it: http://bit.ly/2EusxsD If Google thinks you should do something to improve your security, you'll be given the links to make it more difficult for the bad guys to gain access to your account.

If you're like most users, you have been storing your digital photos on your computer for a decade or more and since you got a smartphone with a camera, both the size and quantity of your photos has increased. The size of each photo has increased as the pixel ratings have improved on your cameras, which means you can eat up disk space much faster. The longer that you've been storing images on your computer, the more likely that you have inadvertently created unnecessary duplicates that are taking up valuable space. Looking for those duplicates manually would be overwhelming and a huge time suck, so finding a software tool that can do the job is a better approach. No matter where the duplicate files may be hiding, these programs can find them and show you where they are stored in a fairly short period of time. Not only can using this tool free up disk space, you may find yourself motivated to reorganize your photos at the same time! Free downloads: Windows 10: http://bit.ly/2EqO05D Older versions of Windows: http://bit.ly/2EpQ4eg MacOS: https://apple.co/2Epvfzw

When's the last time you took a look at all the apps on your smartphone that are just for photography? Most of them focus on colors, contrast, filters and other obvious adjustments, but I've got an app suggestion that's totally focused on a different area. Despite how awesome smartphone cameras are, if you try to take an image with a wide angle setting, you're likely going to see some distortion. The app I found that fixes this problem is called SKRWT and it's a natural addition to anyone's smartphone camera app group. The curved distortion that can happen with certain setting is easily eliminated by adjusting both the vertical and horizontal planes using the app.and#160; It only does one thing, but it does it really well. You can checkout some of their other apps as well at: http://skrwt.com

Here's a common problem most of us experience; setting goals we just aren't that motivated to accomplish without some type of external reinforcement. If you use Google Calendar and want to try to keep your goals in front of you, there's a little feature that a lot of users still haven't looked into called 'Goals' that could help. The idea behind the feature is to set common goals such as regular physical activity that your calendar will find a slot for on a regular basis, based on how often you want to make it happen. What's really cool about the goals feature is that if you run into a scheduling conflict or don't accomplish the goal that day, it will get pushed to another day automatically to keep you on your goal. You have to create your goals using the Google Calendar app first, which will then appear on your desktop computer when you access it through your browser. The whole challenge with our goals usually includes reminding ourselves on a regular basis to pursue them, so now your calendar can at least help you with that part of the equation! For instructions on how to create goals, go here: http://bit.ly/2QgxFFp