Phone

Did you lose your phone? Do you want to upgrade your handset? With so many smartphone manufacturers competing for your attention, purchasing a new smartphone has never been more puzzling. Although challenging, choosing a new mobile shouldn’t be overwhelming.

There are various factors you need to consider before buying a phone to get the best out of the experience. First, you need to identify whether you want to go for an Android or iOS.

What’s the Difference between IOS and Android?

Years ago, there was a significant difference between Android and iOS, and it was the time when Apple’s iPhone dominated the market. However, Google and Apple have been borrowing ideas from each other, and both operating systems have become much more alike.

When it comes to pure features, both Android and Apple phones are good choices that won’t leave you disappointed. In both cases, however, there are some important factors to consider when buying a new phone. Let’s have a look.

1. Screen size

Back in the days, it was “in” to have phones will small screens. The smaller, the cooler. That changed when the mobile phone become “smart” and started to replace the desktop computer. Ultimately, the screen size you should go for depends on your needs. If you’re planning to watch movies or play games at online casinos and their sister sites, make sure to pick a larger screen with a high resolution for better contrast and overall experience. If you plan to use your phone predominantly for writing WhatsApp messages and checking emails, a smaller screen might be sufficient.

2. Camera

The cameras of today’s smartphones have slowly replaced the need for an actual camera. Features like portrait or night mode allow you to take pictures in any situation in brilliant quality. If photos are important to you, make sure that you go for a phone that includes a camera with a large number of megapixels, a wide lens, and optical image stabilization.

Hint: The iPhone usually outperforms Android phones in night mode, whereas Google’s Pixel excels with its portrait mode photos.

3. Storage

The phone’s storage capacity is another important factor to consider. If you’re planning to download a wealth of apps, you should aim for a smartphone with at least 64GB of storage. Any below and you will quickly run out of space as the operating system alone eats up a large part of the in-built memory.

For photos and videos, you no longer have to worry too much about space as both Android and iOS let you sync your phone with iCloud and Google Drive. It means that your high-resolution photos are stored in the cloud and no longer take up your phone’s storage capacity.

4. Price

Smartphones are sophisticated devices with a wealth of features, and that comes at a cost. Depending on screen size, camera and storage, you quickly find yourself forking out $1000 or more.

If you don’t want to spend four figures on a new phone, you can always have a look at previous versions. For the average user, an iPhone 8 will have everything you need at half the cost of a new iPhone 11. In the case of Android phones, you will notice that Asian brands such as Huawei are noticeable cheaper than premium brands such as Google’s Pixel.

Which Time of the Year Should You Buy a Phone?

Last but not least, you might want to wait for a little before buying a new phone. If having the latest version of a device is crucial for you, then you should carefully follow announcements by the manufacturer. Apple, for instance, usually hold their keynote conference in September each year. If rumours are out that the US company from Cupertino is about to present a new iPhone at the conference you should wait with your purchase until after the event or else you might risk buying an outdated device.

Getting a spam call is a huge pet peeve for many people. They are annoying, relentless and persistent. They waste your already limited time and never seem to go away. With the rise of phone spoofing, which scammers and telemarketers can use to hide their number or generate a number with an area code that matches yours, people are getting and picking up more and more spam calls than ever.

Most people hang up or let these calls go to voice mail in most cases, but if you are getting really fed up with these numbers, there are some methods you can use to hold those malicious callers accountable.

If you want to take some action against these calls, keep reading.

How to lookup a phone number

There is a multitude of ways to research up a phone number online. Simply copy the number from the caller ID or your call history and plug it into a reverse phone lookup website or service. These websites will usually tell you if the phone number belongs to an individual or business, and the name of said individual or business. However, not every phone number is registered to someone, so reverse phone lookups will not work every time. Often times, these websites will give you an address for that phone number as well, although the address may be outdated.

Reverse phone lookup websites are a common way for most people to trace back numbers that they do not know that are not blocked or private. There are many websites and resources on the Internet to do reverse phone lookups very easily, but if you are feeling a bit old-school, physical registries like YellowPages are still in use today and remain at your disposal.

Once you have identified the number of the spam caller you want to block, the next step is quite easy.

Blocking spam numbers

After you have figured out which number you want to block, you can block them manually by going through your call history and selecting that number to be blocked.

There are also third party spam call blocking applications that you can download on your phone. These apps detect known spam numbers or other suspicious numbers and either preemptively block them from your phone or send you a notification when you receive the call that it may be a scam. As of right now, no major phone company has a built-in feature or software that does this, so your best bet, for now, is finding a reputable and highly-reviewed spam blocking app.

Newer Apple and Android devices have a more drastic method to completely stifle spam calls. These features, called The Silence Unknown Callers for IOS devices and the “Block anonymous calls” switch for Android automatically blocks all calls from unknown numbers. Those calls are then sent to voicemail and appear on your Recents lists so you can see and return the call if it is a legitimate person.

Not satisfied with just blocking a spammer? You can take it one step further and report the number in the next step.

Reporting spam calls

Often times, spammers will use thousands of different numbers to call millions of people. Blocking one number every time you get one of these spam calls might seem ineffectual and tedious in the long run. However, if you report these calls to your respective country’s telecommunications commission, they may be able to trace the number back to its source and take action against the spammers.

In the United States, you can report the spam call number to the Federal Trade Commission at complaints.donotcall.gov or 1-888-382-1222. In Canada, you can report unwanted telemarketing calls to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission at www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca or by calling 1-866-580-DNCL (3625).

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