SECURITY 

The Best VPN Services 

Christian Cawley  November 26, 2017 8 minutes

The Best VPN Services

The need for secure, anonymous connections to the internet has increased considerably in the past few years, as more and more users come to realize the importance of not being seen and followed online.

We’ve compiled a list of what we consider to be the best Virtual Private Network service providers — grouped by premium, free, and torrent-friendly. We’ll be updating the list regularly, so leave your feedback in the comments for services we should add (or even remove).

These VPNs offer solutions that will mask your online presence to keep you safe. But remember, VPNs might not be as private as you think.

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Premium VPNs

Intended for the heavy user, these professional VPN services offer the basic required privacy alongside a range of additional features, from increased encryption and mobile support to unlimited bandwidth and “zero records” keeping a log of what you’re browsing.

The following VPN services offer these features and others besides.

ExpressVPN

With 1,000 physical servers in 136 geographical locations across 87 countries, ExpressVPN’s focus is on speed. You don’t want a slow VPN when you can have a fast one, and ExpressVPN offers privacy on top of this with PTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN protocol support. For $6.67/month on a 12-month plan with 3 months free, you get a wide range of top VPN features, no logging, and Tor support (ExpressVPN has a .onion website, too).

It’s also great for Netflix!

Sign up for a 12-month plan and get 3 months free.

CyberGhost

With a monthly subscription of $2.75/month on a three-year plan, CyberGhost will give you a very easy to use VPN service. With apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, CyberGhost VPN’s user interface is broken up into six VPN uses.

For instance, if you want to Torrent Anonymously, simply select the corresponding option. Trying to evade the watchful eye of an oppressive government? Select Unblock Basic Websites. If you’re new to VPNs, CyberGhost might just be the introduction you need to understand the benefits.

TunnelBear

For Android, iOS, Windows and macOS, pricing is reasonable at $49.88/year, an annual charge that works out at $4.99/month. With unlimited tunneling and a mobile-only plan, note that TunnelBear is offering 256-bit encryption.

As we discussed previously TunnelBear is a particularly good way to enjoy US-only web content, including video and audio. Easy to use, there’s also a $9.99/month option, if an annual subscription is out of your budget range. A free version is also available, detailed below. Check our full review of TunnelBear for more details.

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NordVPN

NordVPN has numerous servers across the US, Europe, and Australia that are dedicated to ultra-fast streaming, Tor privacy, anti-DDOS, and more.

Most locations support the PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN protocols and all data is encrypted twice for tighter security. All of this is available for $11.95/month, though discounts are available for 6-month plans at $7/month and annual plans at $5.75/month. These prices are higher than they were in 2016.

VyprVPN

Cross platform device support is on offer from VyprVPN, along with a free trial and affordable monthly tariff ($5) for unlimited data and three concurrent connections. Or you might upgrade to their VyprVPN Premium service, at $12.95/month, which offers five simultaneous connections. With desktop and mobile apps, VyprVPN might prove particularly useful to you used in conjunction with OpenELEC/Kodi powered media centers.

Our review of VyprVPN tells you more.

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Windscribe

Available for $90/year (or monthly for $9.00), Windscribe offers unlimited bandwidth, unlimited devices, and servers in 45 locations. you can pay using standard methods as well as Bitcoin.

Windscribe offers apps for Windows, Mac, Chrome and iPhone. Meanwhile, its support for the OpenVPN protocol means that you can use Windscribe with Linux, Android, routers, and more.

A free, limited Windscribe account is also available.

ProtonVPN

From the same team who brought you the ProtonMail encrypted email account comes this new virtual private network.>

Taking an unusual approach to pricing, ProtonVPN has a low-speed, free service, as well as a trio of premium options. The Basic package is $5/month; the Plus package $10/month, and adds dedicated servers, added security, and Tor servers to the mix. Finally, the Visionary package costs $30 monthly, features the additional servers mentioned, and adds ProtonMail.

Torrent-Friendly VPNs

Useful for encryption, anonymity, and reliability when downloading and sharing on P2P networks, torrent-friendly VPNs are slightly more expensive than the premium options, offering as they do a specialized service for a narrow group of users.

Private Internet Access

Costing $6.95/month or $39.95/year (Bitcoin accepted), this secure VPN service offers P2P and VOIP support, as well as the ability to use 5 devices simultaneously and unlimited bandwidth!

A popular choice and recommended by PCMag.com, the fact that it provides VPN for torrenters makes Private Internet Access a particularly attractive choice.

Available for Windows and macOS, our evaluation of Private Internet Access revealed some good features. In short, it is a popular VPN service that offers the best value for money.

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Ivacy

Ivacy VPN highlights its use as a torrent-friendly VPN, and is available for non-throttled, P2P-optimized file sharing for $9.95/month (or $40/year, or $44.95 for six months). Other features include the usual circumvention of region-blocking, the ability to stream anything from anywhere, and 256-bit encryption.

Also on offer from Ivacy is a “strict ZERO LOG policy” which should prevent your activity from being tracked or observed.

Claiming to be the fastest VPN in the world, Ivacy is ideal for torrenting and media-based streaming.

SurfEasy

For just $6.49, SurfEasy Total gives monthly access to its VPN service with unlimited data and ad tracker blocking to users of Android, iOS, macOS and Windows. A subscription gives you support for up to five devices, unlimited bandwidth and torrenting.

Our review of SurfEasy Total explains these features in more detail. Note that there is also a lower-cost subscription at $3.99/month, for torrent-free VPN use.

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BTGuard

For $9.95 a month you can sign up to BTGuard, whose 10 GBit servers offer unlimited download speeds and anonymous P2P torrent traffic. BTGuard runs with Windows, macOS and Linux, and accepts Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, if you don’t want the full VPN experience but want to protect your torrenting activity, BTGuard offers a $6.95/month BitTorrent Proxy service.

What’s not to like?

IPVanish

Our final recommendation for a torrent-friendly VPN comes in the shape of IPVanish, available for as little as $6.49/month with annual billing ($10/month for monthly billing).

With over 500 VPN servers spread across 60+ countries, you get unlimited P2P traffic and unlimited bandwidth regardless. Claiming to be the world’s fastest VPN, IPVanish is available for Windows, Windows Phone, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Chromebook and even routers.

Free VPNs

Not all VPNs are paid services. If you have only an occasional need to access the web or other online service via a VPN, then signing up with a free service makes sense, especially if you’re concerned about payment privacy and don’t have a Bitcoin wallet.

CyberGhost Free

Unlike the premium service, free access to CyberGhost is ad-supported and works only with Windows, macOS and Android. Speed is capped.

TunnelBear Free

With a monthly allowance of 500 MB a month, TunnelBear’s free option is potentially limiting to your VPN requirements. However, you can get a bonus 1 GB of data by taking part in the company’s Twitter promotion. TunnelBear Free is compatible with Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.

For more details, have a look at our TunnelBear vs. CyberGhost comparison.

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OkayFreedom

Like TunnelBear’s free service, OkayFreedom caps your VPN allowance at 500 MB a month, which means you will need to use it sparingly in most cases, even with an extra 100 MB available per referral. This free service is ad-supported, but can be slow at times.

Opera VPN

If you’re not so keen to download a dedicated free VPN app, why not try the Opera browser? Since mid-2016 it has shipped with its own VPN, enabling users to easily bypass region blocking and keep their online transactions secure. It may not be the fastest VPN — and it’s unsuitable for streaming Netflix or torrenting — but Opera VPN is a very popular free choice. Indeed, we’re expecting other browsers to follow suit quite soon.

There’s even a free VPN app for Android and iOS!

Find out more in our in-depth look at Opera VPN.

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VPNs for Netflix

You may be reviewing this list to find a VPN solution that is going to work as a Netflix region blocking bypass. While Netflix has asserted that it will be blocking VPNs to prevent this from happening in the future, some services seem to have found away around this, such as ExpressVPN.

Our dedicated look at VPNs you can use with Netflix lists the available options. But you should certainly take a look at TorGuard and ExpressVPN.

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TorGuard

Several services are available from TorGuard, including anonymous email, an anonymous proxy, and their Anonymous VPN package. Available for $9.99 a month, they offer 3000+ servers in 55+ countries, unlimited speeds and unlimited bandwidth. You’ll also get five connections, which can be used on Windows, macOS, Linux (specifically Ubuntu), Android, and iOS, and TorGuard accepts payment in BitCoin and LiteCoin.

Meanwhile, if the anonymous proxy interests you, both this and the VPN can be bought together for $11.54 a month.

Our Top VPNs – What Are Yours?

We’ve compiled this list over the course or several years. This means two things: one, that we’re satisfied that the services we’ve included are worthy of their continued presence on the list, and two, that we might have missed a VPN service that you think should be included.

If you’re looking for mobile solutions, check out the best Android VPNs and the best iPhone VPNs.

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Source: www.makeuseof.com

4 Best Smart Watch Phones for Ditching Your Smartphone

By  Ben Stegner  

Smartwatches have plenty of perks and offer a convenient companion to your smartphone. But what if you want to use your smartwatch throughout the day withoutcarrying your phone?

While early smartwatches required a connection to your phone, you’ll find modern smartwatches that can operate independently of one. A watch can’t fully replace your phone, but they’re great for those always on-the-go and can reduce the temptation to use your phone too often.

Here are smartwatches you can use standalone, and some information on why good smartwatch phones are so rare.

1. Apple Watch Series 3

Apple’s premiere smartwatch has gone through a few iterations, and the newest adds LTE support. This allows you to send and receive calls and text messages, stream from Apple Music, get directions, receive notifications, and more—all without your phone.

Of course, you also get all the features of the Apple Watch, with a growing list of compatible apps, customizable watch faces, Apple Pay, and much more. This is the best standalone smartwatch for Apple fans, though of course Android users should look elsewhere.

The Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular starts at $399. These watches include a SIM card, which you must activate with your carrier (at an additional cost). You’ll need an iPhone 6 or newer to set it up, which you can do with Apple’s help page.

Buy Now: Apple Watch Series 3 from Apple

2. Samsung Gear S3

Samsung is one of the most popular Android manufacturers, so it’s no surprise that the company offers a standalone Android smartwatch too. The Gear S3 is available in Classic and Frontier flavors, both with an LTE option.

On Samsung’s purchase page, you’ll see options for the standalone Gear S3 on Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T. The Gear S3 costs $349 for AT&T and $399 for other carriers.

The Gear S3 lets you text, email, pay with Samsung Pay, and more without a connection to your phone. It also runs Samsung’s Tizen OS, which is great if you don’t prefer Android Wear.

Buy Now: Samsung Gear S3 from Samsung

3. LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition

LG is another big player in the Android market, and it too offers a smartwatch with LTE connectivity. The Watch Urbane features a classy design complete full a full-circle P-OLED display for a crisp display.

Unlike Samsung’s offering, LG’s smartwatch includes the standard Android Wear OS. It’s water and dust resistant, and lets you stream music stored on the phone.

And thanks to the LTE connectivity, you can call and text without your phone. It’s available from both Verizon and AT&T, with pricing depending on carrier.

Buy Now: LG Watch Urbane 2 from LG

4. LG Watch Sport

Another offering from LG, the Watch Sport was one of the first smartwatches with Android Wear 2.0 and LTE connectivity. It has a crisp screen optimized for bright light outside, and features the power of Android Wear including Google Assistant support.

The Watch Support works with Android Pay, so you can make payments at participating locations with just your watch. Unfortunately, it’s on the bulkier side and only available on AT&T. But if those don’t bother you, this is a solid all-around standalone smartwatch.

Buy Now: LG Watch Sport from LG

The State of Standalone Smartwatches in 2018

We looked at some other smartwatches for this list, but unfortunately the market is pretty slim and these didn’t make the list for various reasons.

The Huawei Watch 2 is a slick device, but it’s not available with LTE in the US. ZTE’s Quartz watch was a great introductory model, but it’s no longer available. And the Omate O5 looks feature-rich, but there’s no way to order on its website.

Why is the market for LTE-enabled standalone smartwatches so thin? There are two main reasons:

Carriers Charge Too Much

Because standalone smartwatches require LTE to connect anywhere, you have to set them up with a carrier like AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile. Unfortunately, this leads to a costly barrier to entry.

Most carriers charge at least $10/month simply for the privilege of having an LTE smartwatch on your plan. Plus, carriers charge you an activation fee of up to $30 when you add the smartwatch to your plan.

Carriers thus treat smartwatches as if they were tablets. Adding a tablet to your data plan can us several gigabytes per month from streaming Netflix, music, and similar while on-the-go. But for a minor device that doesn’t use much data, this pricing feels like overkill.

Battery Life Is Unacceptable

Fitness trackers without smartwatch capabilities, like the Fitbit Charge 2, last a few days on a charge. But smartwatches do more—with fairly large screens and more ways to connect which sucks up battery quickly, most need charged every night. This gets even worse with LTE connectivity.

The Apple Watch 3 lasts just an hour when making a call on LTE. This means even a 15-minute call would drain 25 percent of its battery. That’s not enough juice for you to go out all day with just your watch.

Unfortunately, current battery limitations keep smartwatches from being standalone power devices most of the time. Being able to respond to a text during a run with just your watch is nice, but you can’t expect to use it all the time in place of your phone.

Watches aren’t quite the futuristic devices we hoped they’d be yet.

Watches to Replace Your Phone

We’ve seen the best LTE-enabled watches on the market today. While there are a few worth your time, they come with some big drawbacks. Adding a smartwatch to your data plan costs too much, and you can’t use them for long without draining the battery.

But if you don’t mind the cost and often need to get in touch without your phone nearby, it might be worth dealing with the annoyances. Hopefully, smartwatch technology improves in the near future so we can enjoy a better standalone experience.

If you do get a smartwatch, check out the best ways to automate your life and home with it.

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Source: www.makeuseof.com

Use This iPhone Trick to Never Mistype an Email Address Again

By Ben Stegner  

While it’s important to read over important emails before sending them, that doesn’t always happen when you’re in a rush. That’s doubly true when you send an email from your phone instead of a desktop computer. But double-checking emails for professionalism is essential.

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One unique problem when emailing someone who’s not in your contacts is typos in the address. You might fire off an email and not even realize that the recipient won’t get it because you spelled their domain name wrong.

Thankfully, iOS mail has a handy trick to help prevent this.

How to Never Mistype Email Addresses on iPhone

1. Open Settings and select Mail from the list.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of this page, and tap Mark addresses.
3. You’ll see a text field. Here, you can enter email address domains that you commonly contact.
4. Add any email domains here that you like, such as @gmail.com, @mycompany.com, or @makeuseof.com.
5. Now, when you create a new message in Mail, the app will mark all other domains in red so you know they’re invalid.

Note that any domain you don’t specify in that menu will appear in red, even legitimate ones. So if you don’t add @yahoo.com, @aol.com, or other real domains, they’ll still appear in red.

Thus, it’s best to specify the domains you email most often or those you’re likely to mistype. The red doesn’t mean that you can’t send the email, but signifies that you should double-check it when it appears.

Of course, make sure you add important people to your contacts to avoid entering their addresses manually. You might also want to add other handy addresses to your contacts list that are too long to type out.

If the default Mail app doesn’t do enough for you, check out some intelligent iPhone email apps.

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Source: www.makeuseof.com

Why Smartphone Batteries Explode and How to Prevent It

By  Ryan Dube  

Yes, that little smartphone you keep in your pocket has the potential to burst—and it’s not limited to exploding Samsung batteries. A lithium-ion battery is the same no matter what device it’s in, and they all carry identical risks.

What are these risks? And how can you reduce them with your phone? That’s what we’re going to explore in this article.

Smartphone Battery Explosions: The Facts

We don’t have a bunch of doom-and-gloom fear-mongering stories for you. Yes, your phone can explode. But no, it’s isn’t likely to happen at all.

Modern lithium-ion batteries—today’s preferred rechargeable batteries for everything from smartphones to Tesla vehicles—have the capacity to be highly explosive.

Have a look at this thermal video of a lithium-ion battery cell under “heat abuse” for two minutes:

The point of explosion is sudden and extremely hot.

But outside of a lab where people apply an extremely hot source to the battery, how do these batteries explode in the real world?

Here is the sequence of events that happen inside a lithium-ion battery before and during an explosion:

• One area of the battery starts getting too hot due to a short-circuit in the charging circuit, or some other external cause.
• The chemical reaction inside the hot area begins generating its own heat as well, which spreads to other areas in a process known as electrolyte overheat.
• Eventually, this building heat causes the electrolyte to give off stream, which bursts the battery casing.
• Very flammable, hot liquid (not unlike napalm) escapes and usually burns or melts the surrounding phone casing and whatever the phone is next to.

This reaction, known as “thermal runaway,” does sound pretty horrendous, but there’s one fact that should set your mind at ease: manufacturers are constantly implementing new safety features in lithium-ion batteries that reduce the likelihood of this happening, or at least reduce the damage caused when it does.

Smartphone Battery Safety Features

Some of these safety features include:

• Non-flammable additives added to the electrolyte and battery coatings.
• Built-in circuitry that protects against current surges.
• Circuit interrupt devices that open the circuit if the cell pressure exceeds safe limits.
• Fail-safe safety vents that release gases if the cell expands beyond a higher safety limit.
• Thermal fuses that break the circuit when temperatures reach a safety limit.

So for a healthy battery installed inside the average phone, the worse-case scenario before the battery ever reaches this nightmare “thermal runaway” scenario is a message that the phone needs to shut down. Or the battery may simply stop working.

Still, there are situations that could still cause a battery to explode.

1. Dropping and Damaging the Battery

As mentioned above, everything will work fine so long as you are dealing with a healthy battery. One problem that can negatively affect a battery’s health is physical damage from drops.

Most people will rush to a local repair center to get their screen repaired when this happens. If the phone still works, they don’t even give a second thought to what damage the battery might have sustained.

Unfortunately, a drop can alter the internal mechanical or chemical structure of the battery. These changes could cause any of the fail-safe circuitry to fail in extreme stress conditions.

How can you tell if a battery might be damaged? Open up the case and take a look at the battery. If any of the following conditions exist, consider replacing it immediately:

• Swelling
• Deformation
• Frequent, unexplainable overheating

In many situations, you can avoid explosive battery failure by paying close attention to signs of existing battery damage. For a smartphone battery to be safe, all its built-in safety features need to function properly. So it’s important to never use a battery that has visible signs of damage.

2. Hot Temperatures and Environments

While there may be safeguards built into your battery to ensure that it sheds excessive heat, or shuts down when too hot, it’s important to keep the battery away from those temperature limits in the first place.

Many elements contribute to your phone naturally heating up. Those include:

• Running intensive graphics that put a heavy load on the GPU
• Using apps that put too much demand on the CPU
• Widgets that run constantly while you’re multitasking with the phone
• Regularly connectivity checks when your cellular or Wi-Fi connection is spotty
• Long phone calls

Normally any of these uses are fine, but if you’re doing them in an environment that’s extra hot, you could run into trouble. For example, using a phone in direct sunlight at the pool, while listening to Spotify and browsing the web, makes an already straining smartphone struggle to cool itself.

Even if this doesn’t cause the battery to explode, it can contribute to the aging process and make getting long battery life a challenge.

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Charging your phone under these conditions can contribute to overheating even further. The phone naturally builds heat during charging.

There are many ways to keep your phone cool and avoid these problems:

• Remove the phone from its case when you’re charging it.
• Keep the phone out of direct sunlight whenever possible.
• Don’t leave your phone in a hot car for extended periods.
• Don’t charge the phone while it’s in a pocket or inside a bag, or any other place that can trap heat.

We’ve offered many ways to avoid overheating an Android phone, and tips to keep your iPhone cool. Following these is an important part of being a wise smartphone user.

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3. Using the Wrong Charger

I purchased a first-generation Google Pixel when it launched. Not knowing that the Pixel requires a cable with a built-in 56k Ohm resistor conforming to Type C specifications, I grabbed a cheap cable in the checkout line at Walmart to charge it.

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I incorrectly assumed all USB-C cables are manufactured the same. The reality is that manufacturers of cheap chargers produce cables that do not always meet specifications required by USB-C devices.

After some time using it, I started noticing my phone became especially hot during charging.

One day when I went to charge my phone in my car, the phone became extremely hot and the charger actually became stuck in the charger port. As I was trying to pull it out, a small puff of smoke came out of the charger port.

I’m lucky I didn’t experience a smartphone exploding in my face.

Thankfully, Verizon replaced the phone under the manufacturer’s warranty. But the lesson I learned was an important one: Buy brand-name chargers from reputable retailers!

You can buy non-OEM chargers, but you need to make sure they meet all specifications required by your phone. Cheap knockoff chargers like these use materials with sub-standard quality or an incorrect gauge of wire that lacks appropriate overcurrent protection.

If you don’t invest in a quality charger, you can run into charging problems at best. At worst, you’re risking not only the destruction of your expensive phone, but possible injury to yourself.

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4. Getting Your Phone Wet

Lithium will ignite and burn when in contact with water or water vapor. Batteries come well-sealed, so that kind of contact shouldn’t happen normally.

Many modern phones are waterproof or water-resistant. However, combine a cheap smartphone with a punctured battery, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

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5. Battery Punctures

Lithium reacts to both water and oxygen, so puncturing a lithium-ion battery will produce a reaction. This could be anything from a little bit of smoke and a terrible smell to a full-on explosion.

And the reaction is rapid.

Obviously, this means there’s always a danger if a smartphone gets punctured during an accident or any other violent situation.

Staying Safe With Smartphone Batteries

It’s important to keep in mind that the battery inside your smartphone has the capacity to become a dangerous hazard under extreme conditions.

So the idea is to avoid those extreme conditions. Store, charge, and treat your smartphone in a way so that should anything ever happen, you are protected from serious injury.

To learn more, check out some common misconceptions about smartphone batteries.

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Image Credit: weerapat/Depositphotos  Credit: www.makeuseof.com