Tesco Mobile Blog - Tips and Tricks

Get ready to celebrate the spookiest holiday of the year with these frightfully fantastic Halloween apps, all of which are free to download.

From a pretty scary zombie makeover app to an extremely helpful arts and crafts app ideal for costume making and more, these great free Halloween apps have something for everyone.

World Mental Health Day 2018, an international event dedicated to raising awareness about mental health issues took place yesterday, Wednesday 10th of October.

This year’s theme, Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World, noted the pressures teenagers and young adults face today, and how mental distress and illness can be prevented through awareness and understanding.

New and returning college students are no doubt making the most of their last few weeks of freedom before heading back to their respective colleges for another year of lectures and learning.

Whether you’re a fresher in need of some assistance as you begin your new journey or a seasoned student looking for new ways to streamline the coming year, these helpful Back to College apps will make life that little bit easier come September.

With September fast approaching you’re probably getting ready for the little ones return to school and the inevitable madness that comes with it!

To help you prepare for the big month we’ve put together a quick list of useful apps designed to save you time and money and make the kids return to school as smooth as possible.

May was another great month for apps and saw the release of some pretty nifty new applications including the debut of Google Tasks, a pretty handy news app and a very useful translation app.

Don’t forget to check out Tesco Mobile’s previous Top Apps blogs such as our Top Apps of April 2018, Top Apps of March 2018 and The World's Best Gaming Smartphones.

Summer is officially underway and as a result many of us are starting to look forward to our well-deserved summer holidays.

Make sure you capture the magic of your summer holidays this year with these fantastic photo apps, all of which have been chosen specially for the summer season.

With so many different podcast apps out there today, it can be a tough decision trying to decide which app is the right one for you.

Fear not however, as in today’s blog we’re taking a look at the very best podcast apps in the world today for iOS and Android devices.

Approximately 10,000 smartphone apps launch every day for iOS and Android devices, which is pretty amazing when you consider how the mobile app industry has existed for just ten years!

With so many apps released on a daily basis it can be a little tricky to stay abreast of the apps that deserve your attention, so we’ve put together a quick list of the best new apps of April to help you find your new favourite applications.

Smartphones are susceptible to a variety of security flaws and criminal attacks but with the right knowledge and the correct set of actions you can protect your device from most threats.

Our previous security blog covered the smartphone settings you can change to improve a device’s security and in today’s post we’re discussing some of the other steps you can take to make your device even more secure.

On the lookout for some new apps to spice up your smartphone?

Last month saw the debut of a whole host of fantastic new apps including IKEA’s super handy Place app, Lonely Planet’s social media platform for travellers and the mobile version of the immensely popular battle royale game Fortnite, so there’s definitely something for everyone on today’s list.

When it comes to protecting yourself and your family against cybercrime, it pays to spend some time learning about the best practices for safe smartphone use.

Some smart and simple setting changes can greatly increase the security of your smartphone, ensuring its contents and your data are protected against cybertheft and other malicious actions.

The following blog contains some very simple-to-implement smartphone setting changes that increase security and reduce the risk of cybercrime.

Keeping your kids safe on the internet can be a bit of a worrying task at times, especially if the youngsters in question have their own smartphone.

Smartphone owners seem to be getting younger every year, which is why it’s so important for parents to start off on the right foot and encourage safe smartphone usage.

This blog contains essential talking points parents should cover when discussing internet and smartphone safety with their kids plus some recommendations for parental control apps.

Did you know that Monday, 2nd of April, was International Children’s Book Day? An annual event aimed at encouraging children and young people to read, International Children’s Book Day is a fantastic opportunity to get your little ones reading more.

In honour of this very special event, we’ve rounded up a few of the most popular reader apps on the market so your kids can have access to inspirational books everywhere they go!

One of the best things about being a smartphone user is the sheer volume of apps that are released for iOS and Android devices on a monthly basis.

We’ve scoured the internet for the cream of the crop of new apps for you to download, all of which are free-to-use and available to download today.

We’ve put together a quick list of the very best money saving apps you can download today.

There are plenty of great places to visit in Ireland this March and we’ve rounded up some of our top choices for you and the family.

If you’re thinking about moving network or are getting ready to purchase your very first smartphone, here are 6 reasons why you should join Tesco Mobile – Ireland’s Most Recommended Network.

Here at Tesco Mobile we pride ourselves on offering our customers the very best smartphone plans in the land.

Whether you’re looking for a bill pay plan or a prepay plan, you’ll find exactly what you need and more at your local Tesco Mobile store.

Spoil that special someone in your life this Valentine’s Day with help from these three handy Valentine’s Day apps.

These wonderful little apps cover food and drink, places to stay and of course the all-important flower bouquet, and all three are free to download so you can tap your way to an unforgettable Valentine’s Day this year for less.

Modern smartphones tend to come with a variety of video modes and styles for users to shoot with, offering them lots of control over the finished product.

In today’s Jargon Buster blog we’re taking a look at these modes and styles and how they impact your recordings.

2017 was another stellar year for smartphones and saw the introduction of some incredible new features including edge-to-edge displays, facial recognition security and slow motion video recording among others.

Most of 2018 will be spent perfecting the above features but we can also expect to see some newer smartphone trends taking centre stage, such as OLED displays and foldable smartphones.

Wearable technology (wearables) is a type of miniature computer that can be worn under, with or on top of your clothing.

Wearables are often similar in concept to the smartphone but offer less features and are typically designed for a specific purpose e.g. health and fitness tracking.

Good news for people who made it their New Year’s resolution to get fit and healthy in 2018: it’s never been easier to get fighting fit, and thanks to the below health and fitness apps you can do it for absolutely free!

Whether you’re just starting off on your fitness journey, looking for new tools to help you along the way towards those health and fitness goals or need some assistance with your diet, you’ll find there’s an app for you!

They say there’s an app for everything and if you need help maintaining your New Year’s resolutions, you’ll be happy to know there is indeed an app for that.

Whether you want to lose weight, get fit or quit smoking, the following apps will help you stay on top of your New Year’s resolutions in 2018.

We’ve rounded up the very best Santa tracking apps for iOS and Android so you and the little ones can keep track of St. Nick ahead of the big day!

From the super cool official Google Santa Tracker to NORAD’s incredibly cute Santa tracker, these awesome apps will provide plenty of fun ahead of Father Christmas’s visit.

Keep up the festive cheer during the countdown to Christmas with these awesome (and free) Christmas countdown apps!

From a cute advent calendar countdown app that comes with daily mini-games to one that features a beautiful 3D Christmas tree, these countdown apps will keep your spirits up during the wait for the big day.

Are you unsure of how much data you need for your smartphone on a monthly basis? Are you having difficulty understanding how your data allowance is calculated? Perhaps you’re unsure how much data your favourite apps and services use? Fear not however, as in today’s highly informative blog we’re breaking down smartphone data byte by byte so you can quickly get clued-up on this all-important topic!

Today’s smartphone cameras are powerful little devices capable of taking truly stunning shots and replicating the same kind of photo quality you’d typically find in high-end cameras. However, smartphone camera jargon can be a little confusing, so in today’s blog we’re going to run through the most common smartphone camera terms so you know exactly what to look for when purchasing a new smartphone.

Welcome to the second part of our Jargon Buster blog on smartphone operating systems. In part 1, we covered the basics of smartphone operating systems, and in this entry we’ll be taking a look at the two biggest operating systems of today.

A smartphone’s operating system, in a sense, can be regarded as the phone’s ‘brain’. The operating system, or OS, is the software responsible for managing and running your smartphone, similar to how a PC may run on Windows or an Apple computer runs on iOS.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is without a doubt one of the hottest smartphones of recent years and one of Samsung‘s most highly praised devices.

In today’s blog we’re going to take a look at some forward-thinking tips you can use to tailor the Samsung Galaxy S7 to your own personal liking.

Are you ready for the new school year and everything that comes with it? Starting school can be a stressful time for children and parents alike, which is why it’s a good idea to be as prepared as you can be.

Our handy school lunch recipe app roundup features some of the very best recipe apps available to download right now, all of which are jam-packed with healthy and tasty lunch ideas for little ones.

September heralds the start of the new education year and for many young people the beginning of their college experience. College can be quite intimidating at first, which is why it’s important that our not-so-little-ones start off on the right foot and take full advantage of everything college has to offer them. The good news is there are plenty of apps designed to help your kids successfully transition from secondary school to third level education.

While the summer may not be quite over yet, many mums across the country are starting to prepare for their kids’ return to school. With so many things to do, it can be a little difficult at times to stick to your schedule. Fear not however, as these handy time saving apps will help you keep on top of everything and ensure you and your kids are ready for the new school year.

Electric Picnic is without a doubt one of Ireland’s most unique festivals and a must-attend event for Irish music lovers of all ages. It’s also 100% family friendly and a highlight of the year for many Irish families, but of course the festival will be no fun for you and the kids if you forget to bring the right equipment! As Electric Picnic 2017 is just around the corner, we’ve compiled a quick prep list of festival essentials you can use to ensure your family is 100% festival ready!

The summer may be coming to a close but there’s still lots of time to get a quick August family break in before we say slán to sun for another year. For today’s post we’ve rounded up a couple of handy apps that will help you and the family to make the most of your August break!

The weather in Ireland can be temperamental at best and wet and windy at worst so it’s important to get out and about while the weather is pleasant. Make the most of the fleeting Irish summer and have as much fun in the sun as possible with these excellent outdoor apps.

Although the Irish summer is still in full swing it’s never too early to start getting ready for your little ones’ return to school. These handy little apps will help with your preparations and in some cases can also be used to assist in your kids’ education.

Summer is fully underway here in Ireland which means that it is officially festival season! Prepare for the best festival ever and ensure you have as much fun as possible with these forward-thinking festival apps.

Getting to and from your destination is without a doubt the most stressful part of any holiday, and it can be even more stressful if you have young children in tow. However, there are plenty of great apps out there designed to keep your kids entertained when travelling, and the following are some of the most popular.

Last week saw the addition of a brand new feature to Snapchat, one that has since been accused of violating Snapchat users’ privacy and identified as a potential tool for stalking. Named Snap Map, the new feature is essentially a geotagging function that allows users to tag their geolocation and share it with friends and other users on the app.

Did you hear about Facebook’s new Order Food feature for the social network’s web and mobile app? Although still in its testing stage, the new Order Food feature will allow users to search for local restaurants, order food and pay for it all through their Facebook profile.

Now that the summer has finally reached our shores, you’re likely thinking about your upcoming summer holidays. In light of this wonderful time of year, we’ve compiled a list of the very best apps you can download to help you get fit for your time in the sun!

Welcome to another entry in our Jargon Buster series, where we explain some of the most frequently used technical terms of the smartphone world. In today’s post, we’re looking at smartphone chargers and the different options available today.

While we’d all like to pretend that summer in Ireland equates to three whole months of fun in the sun, the likelihood is we’re probably going to see some rain during this time, and by rain we mean torrential downpours. Thankfully, just because the sun isn’t shining doesn’t mean you can’t have a fun-filled day and these great apps will keep you entertained come rain or thunderstorm.

The summer has finally arrived and with it (hopefully) a good few months of some fantastic weather. While many people are looking forward to their holidays abroad, an increasing number of Irish people are deciding to stay in the country during their sabbatical.

Great news for smartphone owners everywhere: a team of scientists from Montreal is hard at work developing the world’s first solar-powered self-charging smartphone battery!

Although the team is still a long way off from a finished product, good progress has been made and the scientists are confident that their technology could one day be used to power a wide variety of portable devices including smartphones.

Samsung has been very busy the past few months. In addition to finally unveiling the hotly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone, the company’s Samsung Electronics Italia division recently launched Wemogee, the world’s first emoji-based chat application designed to help people with aphasia and other language disorders express themselves easily in an effective manner.

After months of waiting, the Samsung Galaxy S8 finally went on sale last month. With its almost bezel-less display, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is without a doubt one of the most aesthetically pleasing smartphones ever manufactured, and the ideal device for taking and viewing pictures and video content on.

In today’s post we’re going to take a quick look at the Samsung Galaxy S8’s camera modes for pictures and videos and how these can be used to improve your shots and videos.

Continuing on from our previous Jargon Buster blog about smartphone screen resolution, today’s entry takes a look at the different types of display panels found in modern smartphones and what each display panel offers in terms of visual quality.

There’s a range of different smartphone screens featured in different devices, but if you’re not familiar with what each screen type offers then you’ll likely be unaware of the various advantages of each type. In today’s Jargon Buster we’re going to examine some of the most common abbreviations used to describe smartphone screen resolution.

Bitmoji is a super fun app for iPhone, Android, iPad and Chrome that you can use to create, edit and send your own personalised emojis. Bitmoji is the mobile app companion of the highly popular Bitstrips cartoon platform and was first released on iTunes and the Google Play Store all the way back in 2014.

Easter is nearly upon us and in honour of this most chocolatey time of year we’ve compiled a list of the top three Easter apps you can download right now! From the fun filled Egg A Sketch to the slightly addictive Hidden Egg Hunt, these Easer apps will keep you entertained during this special holiday.

While most people use their smartphone to take pictures or record videos, there are quite a number of people who use their devices to record audio only. Modern smartphones typically feature quite advanced microphones, and while limited in size these can be used as a competent microphone substitute for recording music, interviews and notes.

Did you know that the very first selfie was taken in 1839 by a man named Robert Cornelius? Selfies may seem like a relatively new phenomenon, but in truth taking pictures of ourselves has been a long favoured pastime by professional and amateur photographers alike. However, thanks the inclusion of front cameras in modern smartphones, selfies have never been as popular.

One of the most common needs of most smartphone owners is a device with a large memory capacity capable of storing large amounts of various types of content. From images to videos, games to documents, phones have transformed from the talk and text tools of yesterday into the miniature laptops of today.

Planning a holiday is no longer a complicated process like it once was. Long gone are the days of hashing out the details of your trip in a travel agent’s office; thanks to modern technology booking a holiday can be a quick and simple process you can complete on your smartphone. But with so many companies offering their own travel applications, it can be hard choosing which one is the best for you.

Most modern smartphone cameras are capable of recording high definition videos, but this does not guarantee high-quality content. Smartphones are very easy to record on, but it’s just as easy to produce an unwatchable video. To avoid this, try out the following tips and see how they help you record impressive smartphone videos.

Google has identified a major scam which has been circulating through its Gmail service. The scam starts with an email from a source that looks trustworthy and includes a PDF attachment. Or at least it looks like a PDF, it’s actually an image file with an embedded link that takes you to a new Google login page.

It’s that time of the year again and we all know that making those new year resolutions can be complicated. When the fun and excess of Christmas is over and you’re looking to get back to regular exercise and get fit again. This doesn’t have to be a chore, getting outside and moving is a great antidote to being cooped up all day.

If you’re planning on losing weight and getting fit this year then you’ll be glad to know that help is at hand. Fitness apps can really benefit your workouts, helping you to keep track of your progress and stay on top of your goals. There’s a whole range of fitness apps out there but the four in our article are among the very best.

Smartphones are amazing devices with giant high definition screens, fast data and top notch cameras. That means they’re great to use and carry with you every day but it eats into your battery life. This festive season you’ll definitely want to have a phone to hand so use these top tips to keep your phone juiced up.

Christmas can be complicated - there’s no denying that. There are people to see and parties to attend. Christmas trees to decorate and dinners to make. And somehow in the middle of all of that you also have to find the time to buy ALL the presents! Tesco Mobile is here to help with not only a range of great handsets but also a special Prepay offer.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. With presents to buy and guests to entertain, as well as making sure everyone is sorted for Santa, it can be pretty complicated. Luckily Tesco Mobile is here to help, with our guide to the best apps that take the stress out of Christmas.

The camera is one of the most important features to consider when buying a new smartphone. It’s something many of us use everyday, for social media, video calling or preserving precious memories. The amount of technology which is crammed into a tiny camera unit is truly impressive and is constantly changing and improving.

This week in App Focus we’re showing you a way to bring something totally new to your photos with Prisma. A whole lot more than another photo filter for your smartphone.

When you’re with Tesco Mobile you know you’re getting great prices on phones, a reliable network, fast delivery of your new handset and award winning customer service. There’s another extra bonus for each and every customer in the form of Tesco Clubcard rewards!

Welcome to Jargon Buster! At Tesco Mobile, we’re all about making things as easy as possible for our customers, and that means making sure that everything you read makes sense. This week we’ll be answering the question – What does mAh mean?

Mobile data can be a bit intimidating, especially at first as you get to grips with terms like gigabytes and download speed. At Tesco Mobile, we’re all about making thing less complicated and that includes breaking down the jargon when it comes to knowing what you get for your mobile data allowance.

US cellphone owners who want to use their device in Ireland should be aware of the international rates they could be charged for when making calls or sending texts while in Ireland. There are two easy ways to avoid astronomical phone bills when in Ireland; unlock your cellphone and use a local prepay SIM card or purchase a prepay cellphone in Ireland.