Articles and competitions.

From keeping your data safe from hackers, to providing vital GPS navigation, or finding an app to help you do virtually anything, new smartphone technology has almost limitless potential to benefit our lives. So, it’s very exciting to hear about the release of the latest iPhone, rumoured to be launching in September. A new iPhone means exciting new tech. And, there’s nothing better than that new phone feeling. Some secret sources have revealed that there’ll be 3 new flagship phones to replace the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR. And rumour has it, they’ll be sporting new and improved cameras, getting rid of 3D Touch to make way for other new tech and, perhaps surprisingly, keeping the Lightning port. Although, word on the street is that these will be the last iPhones to use Lightning before the introduction of USB-C. We’ll let you know more news as soon as we get it, so keep checking in here. And, if this sounds like the news you’ve been waiting for, then now’s the time to take stock of how l

Today is National Stress Awareness Day! It’s a great time to take a moment and think about our wellbeing, and the most effective ways to stay productive when it all gets a bit too much. No matter whether you’re studying for exams or chairing a big project at work, stress can easily take its toll and make a hard day seem even harder. Stress Awareness Day was created by the International Stress Management Association (ISMA) to help provide information and strategies on how to manage stress, both for individuals and organisations. Unchecked stress can ultimately lead to health problems such as high blood pressure, so it’s important to take a step back and identify the things in your life that make you feel tense or under pressure. Here at iD, we’ve got a list of four apps that are great for helping to combat stress, and we’re also running a competition to win a Special Edition Fitbit Versa 2 to celebrate. More on that later, though: 1.Breath2Relax (Free) Take a deep breath. This app is gr

Getting a new iPhone? Apple have recently unveiled the top apps on the App Store for 2019, and there are some absolute crackers on the list. From incredible camera software to addictive games, we’ll show you the apps that should take pride of place on your home screen. Game of the year – Sky: Children of the Light Review: 4.8 Free Apple have declared Sky: Children of the Light as their number one game of the year on the iOS platform, and for many great reasons. Designed by the team that created Journey (the 2013 game of the year), Sky contains a whole host of experiences made to be shared with a friend. Sky contains seven different realms that each represent the various stages of life. You arrive as a Child of the Light, and the aim is to return fallen stars to their constellations in each realm. The more fallen stars you collect, the more ‘winged light’ you receive, which gives you the ability to fly further across the kingdom. It’s also a great way of meeting new people, and the huge

Disappointed you didn’t get the gift you wanted? Get tips on what to do with unwanted pressies. Before you stick your unwanted electronics in the back of your wardrobe, here are a few other ideas that could help you get the most out of them. 1. Sell ‘em Chances are, whoever gifted you that games console, drone or e-reader probably spent a bit of money on it. And, if the item is still sealed in its original packaging, or at least in a fairly decent state, it could be worth a bit of money. So, why not stick it on a website like: - eBay - Amazon - Gumtree Just remember to be discreet – you probably don’t want the person who gave it to you to figure out you’re selling it on! Better still, if you’re trying to get rid of a laptop, tablet, smartphone or Smart Watch you may be able to trade it in. Check out the Currys PC World trade-in policy and get an estimate to see if you could put your unwanted gadget towards something you do fancy. 2. Regift ‘em The ultimate form of cheekiness. If you kn

Smartphones are part of our everyday lives. From booking tickets, paying for things and ordering food, to connecting with friends and family, they’ve revolutionised our lives. But perhaps one of the most incredible things they can do is make us smarter. Here we look at a few ways your phone could support your learning… Improve your artwork We all love doodling with pen and paper. But when we want to take our illustration skills to the next level, our mobile phones can help. Drawing Desk: Draw & Paint Art is a free app available on iOS and Android. It lets you sketch, paint and create realistic-looking artwork in the palm of your hand. Even novice artists will love experimenting with tools such as 3D brushes, NEON brushes, glitter brushes and many more. Adobe Illustrator Draw is another app available on iOS and Android. It’s a must-have for improving artists and professional illustrators. You can go from sketch to finished product with vector lines to ensure your illustrations have a pe

Did you know 12% of all new gym memberships are taken out in January? The New Year is just around the corner, and loads of us will be itching to get back into shape and start working towards our health and fitness goals again. Apps are a great way to monitor your progress and keep track of your physical activity. Lots will let you set goals to work towards - perfect to give you a little boost when your will power is wavering. We’ve done the research, and here are our top recommended health and fitness apps to help you smash it in 2020. My Fitness Pal If you’re looking to keep a closer eye on your eating habits and calorie intake, My Fitness Pal will help you take back control. With iOS and Android apps, as well as a website, all which let you keep track of your diet and calorie intake, My Fitness Pal makes healthy eating easier than ever. With a barcode scanner and a database with over 11 million foods, just scan or search to instantly find the nutritional information of whatever you w

We’ve all done it – overspent during the festive period and suddenly found ourselves a little lighter than we’d like to be come January. No need to fear, it’s easy to get back in control of your finances when you’ve got the right tool for the job, and we’ve got you covered. Did you know, Brits spend 4.9 billion on Christmas nights out, tell more than 154 million cracker jokes every year and eat two Christmas dinners over the festive period on average? (Though we won’t tell if your total is higher!) So after all that indulgence, when you’re ready to get your spending back under control, we’ve got 4 apps to help you get started. Mint Get ahead with your finances and enjoy that feeling of knowing your money is fully managed with the Mint app. By bringing together your bank account, credit cards, bills and investments all in one place, it can help you fully track your finances – so you can see the whole picture. Set yourself a spending budget, see where you can save money and check your cr

Whether your New Year’s resolution for 2020 is to get fitter, eat healthier, save money or travel more, everyone wants to try and be a better version of themselves in the year to come. While people come up with great ways to smash their goals early on, statistics show only 9.2% of people actually stick to their New Year’s resolution and kick their bad habit long term. If you’re looking to make a change next year and stay on top of your goals for good, take a look at our list of top 5 apps for really embracing the new you. Strides If you’ve got a few goals you want to work towards and bad habits you want to change, the Strides app is the perfect place to keep track of everything you’re working towards in one place. Get organised and build charts to see your progress on everything in one place – you can even set reminders for extra motivation when you need a boost. Available on iOS only, it’s completely free. Track anything you want, any way you want and stay on top of all your different

Chinese or Indian? Whatever you choose for your takeaway night, there’s no need to call up to get your favourite cuisine delivered to your door. Calling up and ordering a takeaway is a thing of the past. If you’re not up to date with what takeaway apps are available, or your current takeaway app just isn’t delivering (no pun intended), we’ve put together a list of the best food delivery apps in the UK right now. (Android, iOS) If you’ve used Uber before, you’ll have no problem using Uber Eats. They’re different apps but share similar features, including estimated delivery times, driver tracking and cashless transactions. There’s a huge range of restaurants to choose from, and the standard delivery charge is only £2.50. You can even get McDonald’s delivered to your door via Uber Eats, perfect when you’re craving a Big Mac. Plus, you’ll often see voucher codes for free delivery or money off your order, so you can save money while getting proper restaurant cuisine delivered. (Android, iOS

We’re running a great competition to help make your Christmas 🎄 the best one yet. And the best bit? We’ve got three prizes to give away – that means three chances to win! Win a Nintendo Switch Lite with Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe All board-gamed out? The Nintendo Switch Lite is the ultimate on-the-go console. Super lightweight and able to connect with other Switch consoles, it’s perfect for the long journey home and keeping the kids happy. And with another addictive Mario adventure included, the kids may need to fight you for a turn. Win 1 of 2 all-new Amazon Fire 7 Tablets Get stuck into family Christmas flicks and keeping everyone entertained with this gorgeous tablet. Tuning into your festive playlist is as easy as saying “Alexa, play Last Christmas by Wham”. How to enter All you need to do is comment below this post and tell us “What’s your favourite thing about Christmas?”. Just make sure your logged in first. It couldn’t be easier! Good luck! T&C’s apply

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, the festive period can be a stressful time as we make travel plans to visit friends and family in the UK, overseas or even ditch the cold and have a warm Christmas on the beach. But there’s no need to stress. If you’re taking a trip this festive season, let your phone do the work for you with our handy guide. Book and plan your trip TripIt If you hate leaving things to chance, this is the app for you. It’ll do everything from remind you when to check in to letting you know how long security lines are. Plus, you can even get interactive maps of the airport. As soon as you book a flight, hotel or car forward it to plans@tripit.com and TripIt will instantly add it to your itinerary. PackPoint If you never know what to pack, PackPoint is like having a personal assistant on hand. It shows you what to bring based on the length of your trip, the weather and any activities you’re planning along the way. Just enter the city you are visiting and put in all

We all love a good get together especially during the festive season, here is my guide to planning the perfect event. Plan your party to perfection Planning is the fun part and that means gathering ideas and inspiration. So, we’ve found two friendly apps to help you make sure you’ve got all your Christmas party bases covered. Simplenote and Evernote are great user-friendly apps that are available on iOS and Android Simplenote – easy to use and syncs with all your devices: A simple, fast and multi-platform app You can use it everywhere (your notes stay updated across all your devices) Allows you to drag and drop images from other sites Evernote – next-level note-taking Evernote Basic is free but you can upgrade to the premium option for £4.99 a month Allows you to not only type notes, but also make audio, photo, video and even handwritten notes Staying organised wherever you are, even when you’re offline It supports bullet points, numbers, and to-do lists – you can use them all in a sin

From exclusive podcasts to limitless downloads, there’s an audio streaming app out there for everyone. With fewer phones featuring a built-in music player app, more people than ever are turning to streaming apps for convenient listening, hassle-free downloads and the huge range of choice they provide. But which one should you go for? To help you choose, here’s a run-down of the top 5 music streaming apps for Android and iOS this year, and what makes them so great. (Android, iOS) There are over 217 million Spotify users around the world right now, and over 100 million of them pay for Spotify Premium. So, what are the benefits? When you subscribe to Spotify Premium, you can download an unlimited number of albums and songs to listen to offline in higher quality. Once you start building your library, Spotify learns what kind of music you like and makes great recommendations with Daily Mixes just for you. Unwind to the albums you love without any annoying ad breaks, and there’s a mind-blowi

Buying a Christmas present for friends, family or a Secret Santa? Sticking to a budget can be tricky, so let us help. Just for you, we’ve come up with some great techy gifts for all budgets. We’ve got gift suggestions at three popular price brackets – under £50, £100 and £200. So take a look, and prepare to be inspired! Just one thing to note – please use the prices shown as a guide only. They were correct when we wrote this, but obviously these things can change. Gifts for £50 or less PlayStation alarm clock (£24.99) Buying a gift for a gamer? Then look no further. This alarm clock features the iconic PlayStation button symbols and analogue sticks, and plays video-game inspired sounds when the alarm goes off. Buy it here Google Nest mini (£49) Google Nest Mini is a compact and discreet smart speaker with the always-helpful Google Assistant built-in. It’s just like the original Mini, but now has better voice recognition and bass that’s twice as powerful. Use your voice to play music wi

We’re constantly talking and listening to our customers, identifying ways to improve the service we offer, making mobile better. So we’re delighted to announce we’re on YouGov’s 2019 Top 10 list of improvers for Brand Advocacy! YouGov BrandIndex screened 1,500 brands asking respondents "Would you recommend the brand to a friend or colleague?" and “Would you tell a friend or colleague to avoid the brand?”. And vs. our 2018 score we’ve improved to a 45.8 net score! This is great news and shows the progress we’re making, but we won’t stop there with plenty more improvements planned for 2020 and beyond. You can see the full results here: https://www.brandindex.com/ranking/uk/2019-advocacy

It’s National Text Your Ex Day! Yes, you did read that right. Even if message a former lover may not be your cuppa tea, why not enter our competition and find a reason to celebrate! No, you don’t need to message your ex to win. Instead, we’re offering one winner a chance to get their hands on some extra data this month. All you need to do is share 5 things you’d rather use your data on than texting your ex! Here’s a few things we’d rather spend our data on: 1.Find a date Better to move forward than dwell on the past, right? There’s a stack of different dating apps out there, and each of them offer something slightly different. Tinder is probably the most famous one, with the classic ‘swipe right, swipe left’ system. Then there’s Bumble, where only women can strike up a conversation once you’ve matched. Happn is a little different, too. It works with your location data to show you people you’ve passed while you’ve been out and about. Give it a go! You never know, you could end up meetin

As you may already know, iD Mobile Black Friday event has already begun. Unlike other retailers, our Black Friday event started on the 4th November, but don’t despair if you weren’t aware (that rhymes), because we’ve just added a heap of new handset and SIM only deals, and you’ve got till the 2nd December to get your hands on them. Introducing the iD SIM Only Big Data plans! As part of our Black Friday event, we have introduced a set of new SIM only deals, with unlimited Minutes, and enough Data for you to talk, stream and browse the web to your heart’s desire, without having to worry about running out of allowances. Our Black Friday deals just got even sweeter. How about unlimited everything for only £23 a month? Check out our Black Friday SIM Only deals: Already an iD customer and want to get your hands on one of these great deals? Don’t worry, why not check if you can change your plan to one of the plans above - check out this article on how to change your plan . Whether you’re on a

It’s the biggest Community Competition ever! Yes, you have three chances to win three amazing prizes… Win a SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab A Perfect for watching your fave films and Netflix binges on a gorgeous 10.1-inch Full HD display. Win a SAMSUNG Galaxy A70 Three superb cameras (including a 32MP main camera, depth and ultra-wide) capture all the action. Win an HP 15.6" 1 TB Laptop Loaded up with Windows 10 and a powerful processer, this compact laptop takes on everyday task with ease. How to enter All you need to do is comment below this post and tell us “What is your favourite event to celebrate?”. Just make sure you logged in first. It couldn’t be easier! Good luck! T&C’s apply

Trick or treat? We’re running a Spooktacular competition to celebrate! Whether you’re dressing up as ghosts , carving pumpkins into glowering jack-o’-lanterns or watching a horror movie to celebrate October 31st, we’ve got a great competition that’ll make your Halloween even better. You’re probably familiar with the short horror story attributed to Ernest Hemingway: “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” The reason it’s so scary is because it raises more questions than it answers. In other words, what’s left unsaid is far more terrifying than what’s written because it’s left to your imagination. In the spirit of Hemingway and all things ghoulish, ghastly and chilling, we want you to come up with a short story that you think will give us the shivers. We aren’t expecting a story as short as six words, so let your imagination run wild! We’re offering two winners the chance to get their hands on the Motorola G7 Power. But, as this is Halloween, there will also be another 2 winner that will be

Ever seen an advert with a strange-looking bar code telling you to scan? Or have you got your eye on a pair of wireless headphones that claim to link instantly to your phone with a quick tap? What you’re looking at are QR (Quick Response’) codes and NFC (Near-Field Communication). Here, we’ll explain what they are and just how they can help you get more out of your phone. What is a QR code? QR codes are pretty similar to the one-dimensional bar codes you see on the back of product packaging or books. However, where 1D bar codes are only able to store up to 30 numbers, two-dimensional QR codes can store over 7000 and be scanned both horizontally and vertically. That means not only are they more practical, but they can also store more information. You’ve probably seen QR codes and haven’t noticed. When you book a flight and download your boarding pass to your smartphone, the QR code on your ticket is the bit that you scan to get you into the departure lounge and through your gate. If you

What's the difference between Google Maps and Sat Nav ? Going on a road trip and planning to use your phone to navigate? We’ll show you the pros and cons of Google Maps compared to sat navs… Most smartphones come with a 'sat nav' (satellite navigation) built in. For Android there's 'Google Maps', while iPhone has Apple Maps. We're going to look at how these navigation systems compare to a sat nav, to see if there's any reason you might want to use one instead of the other. A few years ago, Google added 'full offline navigation' to Maps, meaning you can download routes and maps that you use quite often, so you don't have to use your data when you’re on the move. They expire after 15 days, which means you'll always have the latest version. Needing directions quickly Most of the time, you won’t leave home without your phone. Your sat nav, however, could easily be forgotten and left behind. That means if you’re out on the road and need to find a quicker route to skip the traffic, you could

One of the biggest shopping days of the year! Our Black Friday event has started, it is a deal hunters dream, but you have to get in quick to grab the best deals. Are you ready? What is iD doing for Black Friday? Phones are actually one of the highest selling products this time of year. During Black Friday 2018, phones and smartphone accessories were big sellers online. And here at iD, we’ll be offering some great deals you won’t want to miss out on. Unlike other retailers though, we’re not waiting around till the end of November to bring our best offers to you! Looking to treat yourself, know a friend or family member looking for a new phone? Or due an upgrade? In our Black Friday Event you can save up to £339 on selected Apple and Samsung devices. Check out all our Black Friday deals on www.iDmobile.co.uk. Feel confident shopping online. We appreciate that shopping online can be daunting at times, that’s why we’ve created a guide on how to protect your identity and information when s

It’s been a whole year since our first Community newsletter, and we’re celebrating! Since we started the Community newsletter a year ago, we’ve posted all kinds of articles for iD Mobile users to enjoy. From helpful guides on how to get the most out of your new phone, to the best camera phones, to the most addictive apps and games, we love engaging with you and making your smartphone experience even better. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading them, and that they’ve proved helpful along the way. Don’t worry though, this is only the beginning. We’ve got some great features, how-to guides and competitions lined up for the coming year. In the meantime, though, here are the top 10 most loved Community articles from the past year: 1.What is Wi-Fi Calling and why should you use it? Our guide to Wi-Fi calling has proved very popular. If you’re still not sure what it is, Wi-Fi calling is a handy way to call and text when you’re in an area with poor phone signal. Many handsets are compatible with Wi-

Got your new phone but found out it doesn’t come with a radio app? Here’s how to tune into your favourite station on the go. Like most things in today’s tech world, radio – and the way we listen to it – has changed dramatically. No longer do we gather around the ‘wireless’ to listen to The Archers! Radio has evolved, but so have the ways we can access our favourite artists, shows and music. Through the power of the internet and smart technology, we can tune in to the radio through our mobile devices, be it our phones or tablets. While FM radio was eventually a standard feature on most phones, it’s now fallen by the wayside on many current smartphones – particularly the more expensive ones. Now, if your phone does have a built-in radio app, then this is a pretty quick read. Just make sure you use a set of earphones, as they also double up as an antenna! However, if you’ve got a blank space staring at you where FM radio ought to be, or you simply want to broaden your horizons, then don’t

Win a Samsung 50" Smart 4K Ultra HD HDR LED TV We’re offering one lucky winner the chance to win an amazing Samsung Smart 4K Ultra HDR TV! HDR technology gives you scene-by-scene image mastering, so you can see the finer details in the picture, even when the setting is dark. Witness the true beauty of a sun-filled landscape or discover what’s lurking in the shadows of a horror movie. Better be careful what you watch this Halloween. You could get more spooked than ever before! To be in with a chance to win, comment below and tell us, what’s your favourite horror movie? You’ve got until midnight on Sunday 8th October to enter and we’ll pick the winners at random. Ghoul Luck! (T&C’s apply)