Gigarefurb Refurbished Laptops News

Samsung only launched new tablets in late September, but we haven’t had to wait long for some big savings. You’ll have to be quick, though – these prices are set to expire today!

At Argos, using the promo code ‘RED10‘, you can get a 10% discount on the newly released Galaxy Tab S10+ and S10 Ultra, which pack impressive features for professionals and tech enthusiasts alike.

Starting with the Galaxy Tab S10+, this 12.4-inch powerhouse is priced at £999, but with the discount, you’ll save £100, bringing the cost down to £899.

With a 256GB storage capacity, Wi-Fi capability, and an AI-powered S Pen included in the box, this tablet is a great choice for both productivity and creative tasks.

The slim, stylish design and high-end 12.4-inch display make it a fantastic choice for anyone who wants premium tech but doesn’t want to pay full price. However, it’s worth noting that the keyboard cover you see below is sold separately.

For those who crave even more screen real estate, the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra offers a massive 14.6-inch display while retaining the same 256GB storage, S Pen and AI features.

Normally priced at £1,199, the £120 discount knocks the price down to £1,079, making this top-tier model more accessible.

With the Ultra, you’re getting a highly immersive AMOLED screen and top-tier performance, making it ideal for multitasking, entertainment, and advanced drawing or designing.

Both tablets are equipped with Samsung’s AI technology, delivering enhanced productivity through the smart S Pen for handwriting and notetaking, and seamless multitasking with features like split-screen.

With powerful processors and sleek designs, the Galaxy Tab S10 series should be up there with the very best Android tablets. Take advantage of these early deals to own a premium device for less.

Hurry though, as you only have until the end of today, 15 October 2024, to take advantage.

If you don’t make it or would prefer a new phone and watch, the free Galaxy Watch when you buy a Galaxy S24 FE promotion lasts until the end of the month.

GITEX is one of the largest global tech events in the calendar, a forum for key experts and leaders from all industries to come together to share and analyse current trends and forecast future tech developments.

EZVIZ is among the attendees, representing the cutting-edge of smart home technology. Exploring the theme, “Into the Easy Evolution”, the brand is pointing the way towards the next stage of smart home development.

In the Middle East, 12.5% of homes feature smart home technology, and the $8.2 billion smart home market is projected to be worth $20.74 billion by 2029. In Europe, it’s currently worth a staggering $40 billion, with smart security products in a third of homes. Meanwhile, in the UK, adoption of smart devices in the UK has increased hugely over the past few years, with over 60% of UK households now possessing one or more smart devices.

But there’s still a perception among many that smart home technology is complicated, or that its use is limited to straightforward security requirements: monitoring, locking up and activating alarms in response to intruders.

At GITEX, EZVIZ is showcasing a connected ecosystem of smart home products that illustrates the ways in which smart technology can provide so much more. Beyond the baseline of home security, there’s a convenient, comfortable smart home waiting to be discovered.

These are the key EZVIZ devices to watch out for, as they exemplify new opportunities for smart home living that combine ease of installation and set-up with fresh functionality, for comfortable, simple living.

Next-gen smart security cameras

EZVIZ has made a number of advancements in sharper, smarter home security. Its market-first security cameras provide a hugely improved experience over most commonly available models. One advancement is the brand’s innovative dual-lens technology, which is the foundation for several smart video features, including interlinked co-detection from two motorised lenses. Another is EZVIZ’s ColorFULL ultra-low light monitoring, which is supported by integrated image processing so there’s no need for spotlights. 

The co-detection cameras include indoor (H7c Dual) and outdoor (H9c Dual) models. They give users, whether they are business owners, landlords or homeowners, a view of their home or premises that’s at once more detailed and wider ranging than traditional security cameras can provide, eliminating blind spots across even large or complex properties.  

Within the smart security industry, there’s been a shift to battery cameras. EZVIZ has addressed customer pain points with these devices in two key areas: power and the restrictions of Wi-Fi connectivity. 

Both the CB5 4K and the EB5 4K feature integral, high efficiency 1.4W solar panels, which charge in two hours of direct sunlight for a whole day’s use. This contemporary mode of charging is matched by the cameras’ sleek, modern design. Green power has never looked so good.

Meanwhile, EZVIZ’s range of 4G cameras, including the EB3 4G, use 4G LTE to stay connected for live feeds and notifications, making them ideal for spots where wired installation is challenging.

Characteristically, battery camera functionality is limited by battery life and cameras usually only record when triggered. In response to this problem, EZVIZ has developed the breakthrough monitoring tech, Always-On Video (AOV), which provides all-day recording while greatly saving on power and storage space. In AOV mode, the 4K solar and 4G battery series will wake at set intervals to detect, record and store footage within the monitoring area. Even when no motion is detected, the AOV cameras will automatically produce time-lapse videos to keep users better informed.

Smart entry devices

EZVIZ has created a collection of smart entry products that can be installed by doors or gates as part of a smart security ecosystem, levelling up the entrance to a home or property with multi-purpose features for enhanced security and convenience.  

While video doorbells have tended to be chunky, one-size-fits-all devices, not optimised for all types of home, EZVIZ’s collection of smart entry products – ranging from the DL05 smart fingerprint lock, which can entirely replace keys, to the HP7 video doorphone, which can be used at the entrance to a larger property – allow consumers to choose the perfect device to complete their individual home security system.  

The DL05 combines powerful safety systems with multiple unlocking methods. It can be opened with a fingerprint, passcode or proximity card, or remotely, using the app. Homeowners can create temporary passcodes for couriers, dog walkers or visitors. Meanwhile, the sophisticated HP7 allows homeowners to remotely control entry to their property via the display, smart RFID tags or the EZVIZ app.

Robot cleaning

The ideal robot cleaning experience is a hands-free one, in which cleaning is genuinely automated. This requires a robot that can distinguish between a variety of flooring types and react accordingly, empty itself and perform its own cleaning and maintenance routines without user intervention.

EZVIZ’s flagship RS20 Pro comes with its own charging station, which takes on these jobs, and features a range of innovative features that come together to take the dirty work of cleaning out of users’ hands. The result is a seamless, high-quality cleaning experience that protects expensive carpets and even marble flooring.

For the outdoors, a further innovation can be expected in the form of a robotic lawnmower, the RM600, which EZVIZ is debuting at GITEX for feedback. The RM600 offers a packaged lawn-care solution, mowing more than 600 m² of lawn per day, which is three times as efficient as some traditional models.   

GITEX is hosted at Dubai World Trade Center from 14-18 October. You can find EZVIZ’s booth at Stand C80, in Hall 26. Find out more about the products on display at EZVIZ’s online GITEX booth, or browse the full range of EZVIZ products on its website.

If I made webcams for a living, I’d be worried! A new feature in Windows 11 2024 Update (24H2) allows you to use your smartphone as your PC’s webcam, and it’s a powerful tool.

Not everybody has an older smartphone lying around, but many do. With the big investments that smartphone makers are putting into their phone cameras, it’s pretty clear that you’ll look better with either your phone’s selfie, or front-facing, camera than on many webcams, even the best webcams you can buy. You know how some streamers use DSLR cameras to make themselves pop on camera? You can do pretty much the same thing with your smartphone.

For right now, this feature, known as Connected Camera, works only on Android phones. It doesn’t appear to be a feature that requires a Copilot+ PC with an NPU, either, though I haven’t extensively tested it. So far, I’ve only tried it with the Surface Laptop (7th Edition) that shipped preloaded with Windows 11 24H2.

To get started, you’ll need an Android phone running Android 8.0 or later and a PC equipped with Bluetooth, running Windows 11 24H2. (At least for now, this doesn’t work with iPhones.)

Actually finding this feature is sort of a pain. Within the Windows settings menu, search for “Open mobile device settings.” The search function is very specific, and I couldn’t find an obvious way to navigate to the page via the Bluetooth page within Windows 11’s Settings.

If you haven’t paired your phone with Windows yet, you’ll need to do so. For years, the most well-known way to do this involved setting up the phone with Phone Link, the app that connects your Android phone or iPhone, and allows Windows to view texts, see photos, and so on. Our older Phone Link / Your Phone tutorial will get you started down that road, if you’re interested. But it’s not necessary.

(One more note: Phone Link can connect to iPhones; Manage Mobile Devices and Connected Camera can not, at least for now. Microsoft’s Phone Link also competes with Intel Unison, which some might argue is a better app. Unison works with iPhones, too.)

The Manage Mobile Devices controls and Phone Link start off the same way, but then diverge. Basically both procedures ask you to scan an HTML glyph with your phone, and then agree to certain permissions on your phone to get started. Your phone and your PC will also need to be on the same Wi-Fi network. You’re allowing Windows permission to access your camera, of course.

If you have Phone Link already set up, the process is straighforward: You should already see your available phones as options on the Manage Mobile Devices.

From here, the process is thankfully rather simple. The Manage Mobile Devices screen has toggles to do two things: send a notification to your PC when your phone captures a photo, and to use your phone’s camera as a connected camera. The latter makes your phone a “camera” to those apps that require a webcam. It’s interesting that as powerful a feature as this is, there’s really no brand name associated with it. Connected Camera will have to do!

All you’ll need to do now is to open an app, like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, that can take advantage of that phone’s webcam. I used the Windows Camera app for demonstration purposes. (The screenshots used my smartphone camera to generate them. You think selfies are a challenge to look good? Try synchronizing two cameras!)

The implementation is surprisingly sophisticated. On the phone, you’ll have the option of using the front or rear camera. If you rotate the camera vertically, the camera will send vertical video. If you hold it horizontally, the camera will broadcast in landscape mode.

What’s extremely interesting is that Windows will apply Windows Studio Effects to your phone’s camera, too, if your laptop supports them: applying background blur, AI framing, and more. You should look great! Your phone’s sensor is far more sophisticated than what your laptop and webcam can provide, and my guess is that the difference will be night and day.

On your laptop, however, you may experience a gotcha of sorts. Using my Surface Laptop’s native webcam, the camera captured me in 1080p resolution, at 30Hz. But my smartphone’s camera output was only captured at 720p, 30Hz. Of course, it looked great on my screen, but your viewers might not experience you, in your best light. The light balance, color, and other aspects will almost certainly be superior, but the resolution itself might be a bit grainy unless Microsoft solves this.

I’m not sure why this is, and it may be that this will be a feature that can be tweaked to deliver “full” resolution in the future. In any case, the connected camera feature inside Manage Mobile Devices has incredible potential, and I hope Microsoft absolutely nails this in the future, even if it puts its own superior Surface webcams at risk.

The one thing you’ll surely notice, however, is that you’ll need to position your phone so that the camera focuses on you. If you’d like to use your phone as a webcam, you’ll need some sort of a stand. If this takes off, however, I’d expect some enterprising Shenzhen developer to pump out either stands or phone mounts for your laptop. Poof! A new industry is born.

In certain moments you can see history be written right before your eyes. Do you remember when Google debuted its free Maps app, complete with on-device GPS? An entire industry of standalone GPS devices became irrelevant almost overnight. I’m not rooting for webcams to disappear. But Microsoft’s new Windows feature could certainly hasten their demise.