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Showing posts from September, 2024

Why you (probably) don't need a VPN

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Everywhere you look online, companies are trying to sell you a VPN (Virtual Private Network), it's the in-thing these days. Getting online using a VPN will 'keep you safe' they say. And they're absolutely right. Except that you're absolutely safe without a VPN too - don't believe the scare stories. You see, every Internet-facing application, including web browsers, in 2024, accesses data over an already-secure  connection. The layers of encryption already in place as you access, for example, your iMessages or Gmail, mean that there's nothing bad guys could do even if they were to somehow intercept random batches of your over-the-air 1s and 0s. But why not pay a subscription and use a VPN anyway, I hear you say - isn't that just even more security? Well... it's over the top security. And the main effect of paying out for a VPN for regular online activity is that it will make that activity significantly slower, because of all the extra encryption being

Samsung Flip6: Review: All the rest (following videos!)

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I’ve been covering aspects of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 in video form, I’ll leave the media embedded here (7 different videos, each less than a minute long!) - if it works. If not, then see my YouTube Shorts output at https://www.youtube.com/@stevelitchfield/shorts   But I wanted to go into more detail on its hardware and software proposition for the man or woman in the street. There’s only so much you can say in 58 seconds in a Short! For a self-confessed geek like me, phones, smartphones, PDAs, pocket computers, I expect them to be sizeable - else they won’t be useful. So I can put up with a flagship like the S24 Ultra. Or Pixel 9 Pro XL. Or even a fold of some kind. Or even my precious iPhone 14 Pro Max in the Clicks case.  But the average phone user, while liking a large display area, also secretly wants their phone to be smaller in the pocket or bag. Which is where the Flip series come in. Simply fold your large screened phone in half and tuck it into any pocket. And it re