Congratulations on bagging yourself a new smartwatch. Whatever type you have – pricey like an Apple Watch Series 7, Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 or Fitbit Versa 3, or more affordable like a Garmin Forerunner 55, what you now have in your possession is something that’s capable of tracking exercise, including running.

Now you might not be into running yet, but if you’re thinking about getting in some treadmill time or going for a run in the park, know that your smartwatch can help you track your progress while offering guidance on areas to improve.

If you’re a beginner, one way to feel this running thing out is by taking on a couch to 5K plan. It’s the ideal way to ease yourself into a running or walking regimen. And your shiny new smartwatch can help you complete that plan – maybe even motivate you to stick to running long term too.

Here are 5 simple ways to put your smartwatch to good use – and get you off that couch and up and running.

The very first thing you want to do is get to grips with exactly what your smartwatch is capable of tracking and displaying when you run. More importantly, you can configure the information you see as you run, which will help you gauge your progress.

If you’re just starting out, you probably don’t want to be overloaded with information, but some basic details you might find useful include distance and time. If you care about how quickly you’re going, you’ll also want to know your average pace. 

Smartwatches are now capable of showing all of that information, but how do you want that information to be displayed? Do you prefer seeing distances covered in miles or kilometers? Do you want all the information to appear on the same screen? Is it important for you to get alerts based on things like target time and distance?

Getting familiar with available settings, like changing units of measurement or adjusting the viewable fields of data, will help you make the most of your new gadget. You can find the settings on your smartwatch, as well as on the companion app that’s used to set it up. 

If you literally have no idea how to get from the couch to running a 5K, there are heaps of plans online that will give you guidance. In the UK, the Couch to 5K plan on the NHS is a good place to start. In the US, the Mayo Clinic has their own couch to 5K plan.

Before you head online though, first check for running plans on the companion app for your smartwatch. Some apps do a better job than others making those training plans known. 

Is your Android smartphone playing up? Maybe it’s running sluggishly all of a sudden, perhaps popping up ads here and there, or just being randomly a bit weird. It may be because you have a problem with malware, or a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP).

So what’s the best way to check for any malware on your device?

It’s simple: grab yourself an anti-malware tool and it won’t take long to install the app, get it going and run a scan. In this guide, we will take you through the process of cleaning house and getting rid of any potential malware on your Android device, with clear and concise explanations in step-by-step fashion.

First things first, you’ll need a specialist piece of software to root out and destroy any malware which might have infected your smartphone – malware detection and removal is not something that can be done manually.

If you already have an anti-malware app installed, then all well and good, of course you can use that. However, if not, then you obviously want to use one of the top tools available.

Note that before you install your new tool and embark on a seek and destroy mission for malware, you may wish to back up your phone if you haven’t done so recently. This is something you should do on a regular basis anyway.

Editor’s note: The rest of this article assumes you’re using Malwarebytes, but most malware removal apps will work in a very similar fashion.

Upon first running the app, you’ll need to tap the ‘Get Started’ button, then give Malwarebytes the necessary permissions it needs to be able to scan your phone’s storage and system.

Press ‘Give Permission’ to do so, then tap ‘Allow,’ and following that you’ll see a screen which explains that you’re on a Premium trial for 30-days. After that period elapses, you will revert to the basic free app (which has much less functionality: all you get with the freebie is on-demand scanning for malware, that’s it). If you wish, you can upgrade to a paid membership here by tapping ‘Buy Premium now.’

You can now press the blue ‘Scan your device’ button, although if you hit ‘Skip’ on the trial screen, or opted to subscribe to Premium from it, then you can initiate a scan from the main menu of the app – just tap the big green button labeled ‘Scan Now’ in the middle of the screen.

When you have a small window to work out in and don’t fancy jumping on a treadmill, grabbing the weights or doing a HIIT class in front of the TV, you could get on an indoor bike and get that fitness hit there instead.

The good news is you don’t have to spend huge amounts of time in the stationary saddle to feel the benefits of a good indoor bike workout. In fact, if you’ve got less than an hour to play with,  you’ve got the right workouts at your disposal and the ideal bike setup in your chosen pain cave, then you should be good to go.

So how do you make the most of that time on your indoor bike? We asked trainers and coaches for their tips on how to do just that and get some sessions you can work into that time on your bike.

That’s the advice from Matt Rowe, who is head cycle coach at Rowe & King and is a co-host on the Zwift PowerUP Cycling Podcast. “Having a plan provides structure to your training and holds you accountable,” says Rowe. He added that getting into the right mindset and looking long term is key here too. 

“Try and find that blend of indoor cycling and IRL riding that works for you and your other life commitments (family, work, social etc). You want to establish a realistic cycling – life balance, that you can sustain for the long term. Just remember, indoor training is hugely time efficient and frighteningly effective. You don’t need to spend hours and hours training in the cold, wet and dark. You can achieve a lot via indoor training.”

The bike is the main component and getting things in the right place is one of the key things to do. “Your seat height should be roughly around hip height,” explains Dani Dellarco, a spin instructor with interactive fitness equipment maker Echelon Fitness. “You will want to be able to fully extend your leg in your pedal stroke without overextending at the bottom.”

You’ll need to think about the other things that will be useful to have at your disposal and close to hand when you’re getting sweaty. Matt Rowe says investing in a fan is a wise move. “While there are physiological benefits to manipulating your training environment to make it really hot (reducing airflow and not using a fan), there are also drawbacks. All things considered, for the vast majority of riders, I advise keeping cool. You will be able to produce more power and get stronger quicker.”

Now you’ve got the advice, it’s time to work out exactly what to do with that time on your indoor bike. We asked our experts to provide those workouts that can fit into that 50 minute window.

Workouts should be straightforward to apply to most indoor bikes, though you may see a reference to RPM and RPE. RPM stands for revolutions per minute and relates to pedal or cycling speed. The number that usually precedes it indicates how many times a pedal makes a full revolution in one minute.

RPE is also known as rate of perceived exertion, and relates to a scale used to indicate effort levels. That scale goes from 1 to 10, with 1 meaning you’re doing nothing on the bike, to 10 being an all out 100% sprint. 

It’s the job that photographers and videographers put off the most: creating a secure backup system for all their photos and videos. But whether you’re a pro with a bulging Adobe Lightroom library or a hobbyist who relies on Google Photos, creating a photo backup is a New Year’s resolution that’s well worth making in 2022 –  and our in-depth guide is here to show you how to do it.

There’s a long list of things that can go wrong with your photo and video files: fire, theft, accidental damage and deletion, to name a few. But these will all become worries of the past if you follow what’s widely considered the gold standard for all kinds of visual creator: the 3-2-1 backup strategy.

Alongside an easy-to-follow guide to this foolproof backup strategy, we’re also going to explain everything you need to know about the different hard-drive types available for large backups. No fluff, just the information creatives need to make informed decisions about the solution that best meets their needs, whether they mainly use Adobe Lightroom or Google Photos.

To help you make the best buying decisions possible, we’ve picked out some of the best large capacity, RAID and network-attached hard-drive options, along with our favorite cloud backup services available. This will help you effortlessly pick the best option for you, whether you’re on a tight budget or looking for the ultimate in professional performance. So, sit back, relax, and start the New Year with a photo backup strategy that’ll change your photography workflow for the better.

The idea behind the 3-2-1 backup strategy is pretty simple. It states that you should have three copies of your images, videos and data, with two kept on local hard drives (for example, your computer and an external hard drive), and a third that’s kept off-site, usually with a cloud storage provider. 

In a nutshell, this means that if your computer hard drive fails, you still have your second local backup and a cloud backup. And in the case of fire or a theft where you lose your computer equipment, you still have your data backed up to the cloud where it can be restored from.

Also, no cloud storage provider is immune to outages – so while cloud backups are an essential part of the 3-2-1 strategy, you’ll still have your local backup available should your provider suffer an outage. Whether you’re a working professional or a keen amateur photographer, the 3-2-1 strategy is a no-brainer because it means that you’re highly unlikely to ever lose access to your images and data. 

Backing up your raw and editing files is obvious, but you’ll need to backup your Adobe Lightroom catalogue too, because this is where all of your edits are saved. And if you use Google Photos as your main image storage, this can also be combined into the 3-2-1 strategy by keeping a local backup on an external hard drive. We’ve highlighted some of the best examples of those in our ‘best local photo backups’ section below, but if you already have one you can skip down to the ‘How to back up Google Photos to a hard drive’ section using the menu on the left.

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a system that can be found in some hard drives and NAS (Network Attached Storage) drives. It uses two or more HDDs or SSDs to provide performance increases when accessing data, or to provide redundancy in the case of disk failure. 

The main three RAID configurations that apply to photographers and videographers are RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD (or ‘Just a Bunch of Disks’). RAID 0 is where data is written across multiple disk drives, which increases performance. But since the data is written across multiple drives, there’s no redundancy if one of the drives fail. 

Macro photography is where you get very close to your subject in order to reveal levels of detail not typically appreciable with the naked eye. 

The capillaries of leaves, the martian-looking surface of fungus and the furze of a spider’s abdomen are all subjects you might try to capture. But how do you take such highly detailed photos with your phone?

We’ll cover that for iPhone and Android phone owners, as well as offer tips for getting macro-like results even if your phone doesn’t have a macro camera or macro mode. 

The latest iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max have a macro mode that automatically engages when you get close enough to a subject. The phone switches to its ultra-wide camera because its lens is able to focus on subjects closer than the main camera can.

Its minimum focus distance is 2cm. For best results, you want to get close to this kind of proximity, although that is naturally going to be easier for static subjects. It takes a bold photographer to get 2cm from a wasp.

As is so often the case, Apple makes things easy. Apple has also added a way to turn this auto-switch feature on and off in the camera’s Settings menu. 

Other iPhones don’t have a dedicated macro mode but you can still take good macro shots with them. We’ll cover some crucial tips for this later on.

Many Android handsets have dedicated macro cameras. You typically access them in one of two ways. There may be a line of controls next to the shutter button that switches between the lenses. The macro one is typically identified by a flower symbol because that’s one of the classic subjects for macro photography. 

If you don’t see it there you should find a macro mode in a settings menu. This may be part of the mode selection screen, usually accessed to the right of the shutter button. Or the general settings menu, which typically sits on the left side of the camera app. 

All phone makers use their own cameras apps, which is why we can’t be entirely specific about this part. 

The Apple Watch has evolved to become a smartwatch that isn’t just another screen to keep an eye on for your steady stream of notifications or to hit the skip button on your gym playlist without having to reach for your phone.

It’s also emerged as a place you can turn to if you care about keeping a closer eye on your health and being somewhere that can do a pretty admirable job of tracking your fitness too.

If you opt for the Apple Watch Series 6 or 7, then you’ll get the best that Apple has to offer in wrist smarts. That includes its new blood oxygen sensor, which might not be a new innovation for wearables, but is the first time Apple has offered the ability to take blood oxygen measurements from one of its watches.

So what’s the big deal about measuring blood oxygen levels? How do you do it on the Apple Watch and why would you want to do it? Here’s everything you need to know about the Blood Oxygen app on the Apple Watch and why you might want to start using it.

Before getting into how and why Apple lets you measure it, let’s get into exactly what we mean by blood oxygen. In its simplest form, it refers to the amount of oxygen present in your red blood cells, which carry that oxygen all around the body.

That oxygen is the body’s fuel and it’s vital for every function it performs to keep us alive. If the body is struggling to take in the appropriate amount of oxygen it needs, it may struggle to carry out those functions properly and that’s when you might experience low blood oxygen levels and issues that can be as a result of those lower levels.

There’s a variety of causes for blood oxygen levels in the body to drop. Conditions like asthma, infections like pneumonia and respiratory viruses and illnesses like Covid-19 can impact on the body’s ability to get oxygen where it needs to be causing levels to fall.

Being in high altitude environments where oxygen in the atmosphere becomes lower than normal is also another scenario where you can experience blood oxygen levels to drop. You may then experience symptoms like headaches, dizziness, confusion and shortness of breath.

It’s rare for someone to experience blood oxygen levels that are too high and would be usually associated with someone who requires assisted oxygen support.

Right now, Apple will let you take on the spot measurements and monitor blood oxygen levels during the day and while asleep. Apple says the data and measurements generated by its blood oxygen sensor are only designed for general fitness and wellness purposes. So for those hoping they can use it in a similar way to a dedicated pulse oximeter device to offer more serious health insights that could allude to some issues tied to low blood oxygen levels, that’s not the case with the Apple Watch. At least, not yet it isn’t.

But is indoor cycling that good for you? That’s a question many people have been asking themselves following the debut episode of Sex and the City spinoff series And Just Like That, in which the character Mr Big suffers a heart attack after an intense spin sessions and dies right by his bike.

Indoor cycling is certainly more relevant these days than ever before. With more people working remotely and a greater need to stay in the safety of home, exercise indoors has become a very important part of fitness and overall health – physical and mental.

The rise in popularity of indoor cycling will certainly attest to its uptake in recent years. Since services like Peloton (the company at the heart of the Mr Big storyline) and Zwift gamified home cycling by adding a big screen and the ability to ride with others, live, from all over the world, everything has changed.

As Wattbike’s Adam Daniel points out: “The research suggests that riding indoors for one hour is the equivalent to riding outdoors for 90 minutes with regards to energy expenditure (if the intensity is similar)”.

Now exercising in the home doesn’t have to mean going into that pain cave alone. It also, crucially, doesn’t mean you have to push yourself, but rather simply need the will to turn up and stay on the bike – and a trainer will take care of the rest.

The big question, if you have decided to go for an indoor cycling bike, is which is the best for you? The big two categories to start narrowing it down from are fixed exercise bikes or turbo trainers that attach to a road-going bike. Then indoor bikes break down into upright, recumbent, studio spin and smart bikes. 

The advantage of the turbo combo is pretty clear – you get a real world bike for cycling out and about when the weather is nice, and an indoor system for when you feel like churning out the miles in front of Netflix. A fixed indoor bike, on the other hand, takes away that choice, keeping you indoors even on sunny days. 

We’d like to say the price reflects this obvious difference but it really doesn’t. A top end indoor Peloton bike will set you back a few thousand just the same as a decent road bike combined with a top-end turbo trainer will. Of course in both cases there are more affordable alternatives. 

One study did find that indoor cycling was actually more beneficial for health than regular outdoor bicycling. But of course, this is based on an intense spinning class, which isn’t always what indoor cycling will lead to after a long day.

A top-end turbo trainer, which requires you to remove your bike’s back wheel, means you’re directly driving a flywheel to get resistance. A cheaper option will just clip to your tire and work like a glorified brake. The reason the flywheel system is better is that it will offer great degrees of control on resistance, making it feel more like a real ride. These are usually digitally smart too, meaning they can link to a screen and adjust the ride to suit what you’re seeing – creating the feel of a real hill and even the incline as you see it on screen.

The best Chromebooks can be some of the best holiday gifts, so it’s little wonder that around this time of year, a whole new cohort of Chromebook owners take to the internet to find out what it is exactly that their new device can do.

This is especially true for those coming from a Windows or macOS laptop, where the operating systems are a bit more robust and have a lot of features that a Chromebook doesn’t have.

They also have a ton of resource overhead, making them clunkier and more prone to hang-ups, slow downs, and crashes that you generally won’t find when using a Chromebook.

Chromebooks are also somewhat simpler and straight-forward, but you definitely don’t want to mistake that for underpowered. Even with lower specs, there is a lot a Chromebook can do, even if it might not be immediately apparent. 

Well don’t worry, we’re here to show you some Chromebook essentials that will make you a bona fide Chromebook convert.

The Chrome OS Launcher is Chrome OS’s version of the Windows Start Menu or macOS’s Finder and Spotlight. Here, you find all your installed apps and a powerful search function that combines a file explorer with a web search function in a single tool.

To access the Chrome OS Launcher, simply press the Everything Key (the key above the Left Shift key) or click on the circle in the bottom left. From there, you just need to start typing what you’re searching for to find it on your device or on the web.

That’s not all the Chrome OS Launchers search bar can do. It can also do quick calculations – enter 3.14 * 2 * 1 into the Search Bar and hit enter and you too can know the circumference of the Unit Circle! – and it can perform quick unit conversions from feet to meters, ounces to grams, milliliters to cups, you name it.

Want to fully expand the app drawer space for your apps on the screen quickly? Hit Shift and the Everything Key at the same time to automatically expand into the full app drawer without having to click a thing.

Outside of the Chrome OS Launcher, the desktop is where a majority of stuff happens for a Chromebook, and it has an interface similar in many ways to the macOS, with a series of icons along the bottom representing apps, settings, or files that can be quickly accessed on a space called the Shelf.

The Apple AirPods are among the most popular wireless earbuds on the planet, with their iconic protruding stem design resulting in a huge influx of true wireless earbuds manufacturers paying homage to the buds. 

Their popularity has only been cemented by the release of the Apple AirPods Pro, which brought active noise cancellation to the earbuds – and more recently, the launch of the Apple AirPods 3, which saw in an upgraded design and support for Spatial Audio.

While there are plenty of legitimate AirPods-alternatives on the market today (some of which are actually far better than Apple’s earbuds in terms of design and audio quality), the popularity of the AirPods has given rise to a troubling trend for fakery. 

The high price of Apple headphones and earbuds, along with the rarity of great AirPods deals, has lead to people pouncing when they appear at a discounted sum. Unfortunately, not all of these Apple AirPods deals are quite what they seem, with fake buds popping up all over Amazon and eBay. 

If you’ve bought or received a pair of AirPods but are unsure if they’re the real deal, there are a few telltale signs that you should keep an eye out for that will help you determine whether they are what they say they are.

The quickest way to check the authenticity of your AirPods is to look up the serial number, which can be found on the underside of the lid of the charging case. It also appears on the bottom of the right earbud. 

Enter that number at check.coverage.apple.com, and if your buds are authentic, you’ll be able to review your Apple warranty status. If your serial number is fake, this won’t work.

When you pair AirPods or AirPods Pro with an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you’ll see a little AirPods icon next to your device in the Bluetooth settings menu. You should also be able to view the serial and model numbers once connected.

Checking the serial number is the simplest way to know if you have fake AirPods, but there are a few design anomalies that could give the game away even sooner. 

First, Apple packaging is always very neat, and the lid of the AirPods box should fit snugly and tightly, with the entire package wrapped in plastic. Of course, this is quite easy for fraudsters to replicate, so you shouldn’t base your conclusion on the packaging alone. 

Building the perfect hi-fi system is the dream of audiophiles everywhere – and it’s not as unattainable as you might think. 

These days, building the best hi-fi system for your needs doesn’t have to cost the world, or fill your entire home with annoying cables and bulky hardware; there are lots of options when it comes to choosing the best speakers, amplifiers, turntables, and music streamers for the space you have. 

Many of these devices also come with modern conveniences like wireless connectivity, built-in voice assistants, and multi-room capabilities, which means your hi-fi system can be as modern (or as old school) as your heart desires.

However, before you go on a shopping spree, it’s important to understand all the different components that will make up your new hi-fi system, as well as having a rough idea of the features you want and a budget you’d like to stick to. 

That’s why we’ve put together this handy guide on everything you need to know about building the hi-fi system you’ve been dreaming of ever since you bought your first record. 

Just looking for some quick hot buys? Before we go any further check out the products below – all of which could make fantastic additions to your new hi-fi system.

There are three basic components that make up a hi-fi system: a source, amplification, and speakers. 

Your source could be anything from a music streaming service played on your smartphone to a turntable – you could even use a CD player if you still have one. 

An amplifier takes the weak electrical signal generated by your source, and powers it up enough to drive your speakers. It’s worth noting that many sources come with integrated amplifiers – even your smartphone contains a small amplifier, though using a separate DAC (Digital-to-Analogue Converter) improves the sound quality dramatically. 

Lastly, there are the speakers. There’s lots of choice when it comes to this component, whether you’re looking for clever wireless speakers, powerful floor-standing speakers, or space-saving bookshelf speakers.