If you weren’t aware what a dual SIM mobile phone is, don’t worry, you are not alone and we doubt you will be the last, a mobile phone that can take - and use - two SIM cards at once.
Using a mobile abroad can be a costly affair: calling, receiving calls; text messaging, receiving text messages - can all add up when you are roaming.
This is where the usefulness of a dual SIM device comes into play: it can house your regular SIM card, used by your existing mobile phone, and a local one, obtained wherever you are holidaying. That will allow you to still receive calls and text messages, only you can use the Internet, without paying a small fortune – through the second, local SIM.
The local tariffs are far cheaper than the roaming costs you would normally pay, with the added benefit of being contactable wherever you are. Most phones of this ilk can intelligently disable Internet access on one card and only use the other one, along with making calls from one and not the other. They can have a similar feature set to your existing device, if not identical (in some cases) and would be a welcome addition to your holiday suitcase.
It runs Android Jelly Bean and has a user interface familiar to anyone that has used Samsung mobile phone, where it sports a larger 5-inch screen – ideal for web use, movie playback or reading that holiday book on the beach.
Our best-selling dual SIM capable phone is the Acer Liquid Gallant Duo, priced at just £139.99. It too runs a familiar version of Android, in Ice Cream Sandwich, and has a more compact 4.3-inch display, allowing it to be slipped into any pocket.
A Smartphones dual sim could be ideal as a family mobile phone for the holidays, or one that could be shared with family or friends whenever they individually travel – the possibilities are endless, with the cost savings speaking for themselves.
2015年2月27日 星期五
2015年2月25日 星期三
Art Education Art helps children become creative
At a time when funding for arts education is being cut in favor of math and language arts, it’s important to realize all that the arts can do for our children. Art builds the imagination, fosters creativity and problem solving, and develops fine motor skills. Art can teach kids many important lessons:
- Develop eye-hand coordination
- Observe the world around them, and learn to trust their own eyes rather than what they think they “should” see or know
- Make comparisons and make choices, distinguish between what’s important and what isn’t
- Improve by practicing, and take pride in their artistic growth and development
- Develop an understanding of what goes into making a work of art-helping them appreciate the work of other artists
According to Americans for the Arts, children who regularly take art classes are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement. They also point out that art classes help kids stay out of trouble and away from destructive influences.
But did you know that art also helps to develop language skills for reading and writing and the cognitive skills needed for math? Participating in the arts helps children learn to focus, to listen, and to be tolerant of new ideas and different people. The arts also help kids learn the value of doing a good job for its own sake, of taking pride in their work, and of setting goals for themselves and reaching those goals.
Drawing and painting are excellent and enjoyable ways for kids of all ages to become involved in art. Many kids think they “can’t draw Gallery Oil Paintings” because their drawings don’t look exactly like real things. They think this means they don’t have any talent, and perhaps shouldn’t bother to try. But the great thing about drawing is that it’s a skill. Anyone can learn to draw and anyone can get better at it. Painting adds the element of color and stretches kids’ imaginations and opportunities for exploration, experiment and creativity. Art helps children become creative adults with good problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Art can be a source of enjoyment and accomplishment that will last their entire lives.
- Develop eye-hand coordination
- Observe the world around them, and learn to trust their own eyes rather than what they think they “should” see or know
- Make comparisons and make choices, distinguish between what’s important and what isn’t
- Improve by practicing, and take pride in their artistic growth and development
- Develop an understanding of what goes into making a work of art-helping them appreciate the work of other artists
According to Americans for the Arts, children who regularly take art classes are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement. They also point out that art classes help kids stay out of trouble and away from destructive influences.
But did you know that art also helps to develop language skills for reading and writing and the cognitive skills needed for math? Participating in the arts helps children learn to focus, to listen, and to be tolerant of new ideas and different people. The arts also help kids learn the value of doing a good job for its own sake, of taking pride in their work, and of setting goals for themselves and reaching those goals.
Drawing and painting are excellent and enjoyable ways for kids of all ages to become involved in art. Many kids think they “can’t draw Gallery Oil Paintings” because their drawings don’t look exactly like real things. They think this means they don’t have any talent, and perhaps shouldn’t bother to try. But the great thing about drawing is that it’s a skill. Anyone can learn to draw and anyone can get better at it. Painting adds the element of color and stretches kids’ imaginations and opportunities for exploration, experiment and creativity. Art helps children become creative adults with good problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Art can be a source of enjoyment and accomplishment that will last their entire lives.
2015年2月14日 星期六
Phones in China
More than 400 million Chinese people have a mobile phone, making China the country with the highest number of mobile phone users worldwide. Mobile phone services are cheap and of high quality chinese phone, and the phones themselves are seen as a status symbol in Chinese society.
The biggest mobile operators in China are China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. Signing up for a mobile phone service in China is pretty simple: You just buy a SIM card at any store that sells phones, buy some airtime and you are ready to go. Mobile contracts are not common in China, so you need to buy a phone card for additional airtime credit every time you run out.
Be aware that the city where you buy your SIM card is considered the “hometown” for your phone, and although your phone will work everywhere in China, you can only add airtime with a phone card from your hometown. If you plan to travel within China for a while, you should stack up on phone cards before you leave your home. Most mobile phone services offer national coverage without any roaming fees outside your hometown.
China uses the GSM-standard for mobile communication, so most mobile phones will not work in China. If you have a GSM phone, it might be locked by the mobile provider from your home country, but you can normally unlock it for a small fee at most phone stores.
Of course, you can also buy a mobile phone in China. Given that mobile phones are a status symbol in China, you might want to invest some money in a rather upscale model if you want to impress Chinese colleagues or business partners. If you only stay for a short time in China, you can also rent out a phone in the shops of the major airports.
The biggest mobile operators in China are China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. Signing up for a mobile phone service in China is pretty simple: You just buy a SIM card at any store that sells phones, buy some airtime and you are ready to go. Mobile contracts are not common in China, so you need to buy a phone card for additional airtime credit every time you run out.
Be aware that the city where you buy your SIM card is considered the “hometown” for your phone, and although your phone will work everywhere in China, you can only add airtime with a phone card from your hometown. If you plan to travel within China for a while, you should stack up on phone cards before you leave your home. Most mobile phone services offer national coverage without any roaming fees outside your hometown.
China uses the GSM-standard for mobile communication, so most mobile phones will not work in China. If you have a GSM phone, it might be locked by the mobile provider from your home country, but you can normally unlock it for a small fee at most phone stores.
Of course, you can also buy a mobile phone in China. Given that mobile phones are a status symbol in China, you might want to invest some money in a rather upscale model if you want to impress Chinese colleagues or business partners. If you only stay for a short time in China, you can also rent out a phone in the shops of the major airports.
2015年2月11日 星期三
Oil paints are made
One of the main appealing properties of Modern Oil Paintings are the glazes. By adding a small amount of pigment to the relatively clear oil medium, you can very subtly tint an image. This is called glazing. Most Renaissance Old Masters used a toned underpainting and then built up several of these thin glazes of colour on top to create astonishingly realistic figures and scenes. The translucence of the paint film allows for sophisticated ranges of flesh tones.
Okay, another analogy: imagine the top layer of oil is stretching as it dries out hardens, and it stretches to the max. Its surface is expanding because it is absorbing oxygen. Now, they oxygen eventually begins to hit the layer below. And it stretches and expands to the max. But they layer above is already dry, how can it expand any more with the one below pulling it!
Like a big cookie on a pan. Slide an uncooked cookie under a cooked cookie, a bigger one and stretch and heat up that dough: as the bottom cookie dries and expands its surface, it will crack the smaller cookie it is now stretching on its surface.To get around this, painters developed the Fat Over Lean rule. With each layer of glaze, add an increased amount of oil paint to the layer. This way, the rate of oxygen begin absorbed by an oily top layer will be slower than the hidden lower, less oily layers, and hopefully they will saturate with oxygen and harden at approximately the same time.
This leads to other tricks and techniques too. If you use too little oil in an early glaze, it can obliterate the drawing or painting underneath that you want to show through all the thin transparent glazes. It also can make the paint too pasty and thick, which is unworkable for fine detail. So, in the early, lower glazes, sometimes solvents such as turpentines are added.
To answer the question above about the dandelion salad, oils themselves are not harmful. An open container of say, safflower oil on the table will do no more harm to breathe in than some extra-virgin olive oil with Balsamic vinegar and a few chili flakes on your table for bread. It’s the solvents you have to be especially wary of. Even some of the odorless ones have harmful vapors, although it’s possible nowadays to buy non-toxic alternatives.
Okay, another analogy: imagine the top layer of oil is stretching as it dries out hardens, and it stretches to the max. Its surface is expanding because it is absorbing oxygen. Now, they oxygen eventually begins to hit the layer below. And it stretches and expands to the max. But they layer above is already dry, how can it expand any more with the one below pulling it!
Like a big cookie on a pan. Slide an uncooked cookie under a cooked cookie, a bigger one and stretch and heat up that dough: as the bottom cookie dries and expands its surface, it will crack the smaller cookie it is now stretching on its surface.To get around this, painters developed the Fat Over Lean rule. With each layer of glaze, add an increased amount of oil paint to the layer. This way, the rate of oxygen begin absorbed by an oily top layer will be slower than the hidden lower, less oily layers, and hopefully they will saturate with oxygen and harden at approximately the same time.
This leads to other tricks and techniques too. If you use too little oil in an early glaze, it can obliterate the drawing or painting underneath that you want to show through all the thin transparent glazes. It also can make the paint too pasty and thick, which is unworkable for fine detail. So, in the early, lower glazes, sometimes solvents such as turpentines are added.
To answer the question above about the dandelion salad, oils themselves are not harmful. An open container of say, safflower oil on the table will do no more harm to breathe in than some extra-virgin olive oil with Balsamic vinegar and a few chili flakes on your table for bread. It’s the solvents you have to be especially wary of. Even some of the odorless ones have harmful vapors, although it’s possible nowadays to buy non-toxic alternatives.
2015年2月9日 星期一
Android Smartphone Pre-installed Spyware
A popular China Android Smart Phone comes pre-installed with a Trojan that could allow manufacturer to spy onto their users’ comprising their personal data and conversations without any restrictions and users knowledge.
According to the researchers at the German security firm G Data, the Star N9500 smartphone, a popular and cheap handset device in China, comes pre-installed with Uupay.D Trojan horse, disguising as a version of the Google Play Store. The trojan camouflage as the Google Play Store, so it enables Chinese Company to secretly install malicious apps, which creates the whole spectrum of abuse.
“The spy function is invisible to the user and cannot be deactivated,” reads the blog post published yesterday. “This means that online criminals have full access to the smartphone and all personal data. Logs that could make an access visible to the users are deleted directly.”
REMOVAL OF THE TROJAN NOT POSSIBLE
In addition, the malicious software allow preventing security updates from being downloaded and one can not disable the program. “The program also blocks the installation of security updates,” claimed G Data.
HOW TO CHECK IF YOU’RE AFFECTED
We recommend you to download an up-to-date Mobile Anti-virus software and scan your device for the trojan and if found return the device back from where you purchased.
According to the researchers at the German security firm G Data, the Star N9500 smartphone, a popular and cheap handset device in China, comes pre-installed with Uupay.D Trojan horse, disguising as a version of the Google Play Store. The trojan camouflage as the Google Play Store, so it enables Chinese Company to secretly install malicious apps, which creates the whole spectrum of abuse.
“The spy function is invisible to the user and cannot be deactivated,” reads the blog post published yesterday. “This means that online criminals have full access to the smartphone and all personal data. Logs that could make an access visible to the users are deleted directly.”
REMOVAL OF THE TROJAN NOT POSSIBLE
In addition, the malicious software allow preventing security updates from being downloaded and one can not disable the program. “The program also blocks the installation of security updates,” claimed G Data.
HOW TO CHECK IF YOU’RE AFFECTED
We recommend you to download an up-to-date Mobile Anti-virus software and scan your device for the trojan and if found return the device back from where you purchased.
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