The ZenBook 3 Deluxe headlines the latest Asus additions at Computex 2017

Why it matters to you

Asus’ offerings for 2017 will be of interest to anyone looking to buy a new laptop, whether money is no object or price is your primary concern.

This week, Computex 2017 takes over Taipei, Taiwan, and we are already seeing new hardware unveiled. Asus detailed five laptops across its luxury Zenbook line and its less expensive VivoBook range, offering up plenty of enticing options for any budget.

Headlining the group is the Zenbook 3 Deluxe, a high-end laptop with an arresting all-aluminum design highlighted with gold accents. Asus claims that at 12.9mm thick, it is the world’s thinnest 14-inch laptop, according to On MSFT.

The Zenbook 3 Deluxe boasts a seventh-generation Intel Core i7 processor, with an i5 processor offered as an alternative, up to 16GB of LPDDR3 memory, and up to 1TB of SSD storage. The system will cost upward of $1,199, depending on the configuration chosen.

Asus is fielding another ultra-thin system as part of the Zenbook line, which is being billed as the world’s thinnest convertible. The Zenbook Flip S packs a 13.3-inch display into a device that is just 10.9mm thick, and weighs 1.1 kilograms, with plenty of horsepower to handle anything that is thrown at it.

The Zenbook Flip S is built around a seventh-generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, with up to 1TB of SSD storage, and up to 16GB of LPDDR3 memory. The version fitted with an i7 processor is capable of 11.5 hours of battery life. The 2-in-1 is priced from $1,099.

Rounding out the new Zenbooks is the Zenbook Pro UX550. This beast is outfitted with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card, an Intel i7-7700HQ or an i5-7300HQ processor, and up to 16GB of memory. These specs are put to good use by its 15.6-inch 4K display, its quad-speaker Harman Kardon surround sound audio, and its impressive 14.5-hour battery life. Prices on the laptop start at $1,299.

Meanwhile, the Vivobook Pro N580 offers similarly high-quality sound and vision without such a large price tag. It boasts a 15.6-inch 4K display, an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card, Harman Kardon certified audio, and up to 2TB HDD and 512GB SSD storage, with up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM, according to a report from Tech Spot. Despite those impressive credentials, its pricing starts at $799.

Finally, there is the VivoBook S, which comes with a seventh generation Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16GB of DDR4 memory, and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 940MX graphics card. It is priced from $499.

Asus is clearly trying to target all kinds of users with its new laptops. Between high-end systems and more affordable fare, there are lots of compelling options here for anyone looking to invest in a new PC over the coming months.

Asus ZenBook Pro UX550

Asus ZenBook Flip S

Asus ZenBook 3 Deluxe

Asus VivoBook S

Asus VivoBook Pro

Best Fitness Trackers Under $50

For those interested in checking out fitness trackers on the cheap!

It’s nearly summer which means many of us are scrambling to get more active and maybe slim down a bit before hitting the beach. And a fitness tracker can help you reach your goals, but there’s nothing worse than investing hundreds of dollars into a top-of-the-line Fitbit or fitness smartwatch only to wear it for a few weeks and then leave it to collect dust in a drawer.

Fortunately, there are plenty of affordable fitness trackers out there for your consideration. They’re offered across a range of designs and you’re sure to find one that will meet your needs without breaking your bank.

Here are the best fitness trackers you can buy for under $50!

• Xiaomi Mi Band 2
• Fitbit Zip
• Jawbone UP MOVE
• Misfit Flash

Xiaomi Mi Band 2

The Xiaomi Mi Band 2 is the latest fitness tracker from the Chinese company which is known for delivering quality products at a great price. It’s a great option for someone looking for a more traditional wrist tracker on the cheap.

This tracker is packed with features: it’s water resistant (IP67) and will track your daily exercise and sleep, give you message and call notifications on the OLED display, and also includes an ADI photoelectric heart rate sensor (though you’ll need to load up Xiaomi’s Mi Fit app to see those stats).

Basically, Xiaomi managed to offer all the awesome features you’d expect from a premium fitness tracker and pack it into the sleek and affordable Mi Band 2. With its replaceable wrist strap, you’re able to swap for colorful bands — you can get an 11-piece set of colorful bands to chose from for under $20.

See at Amazon

Fitbit Zip

Fitbit is the leading brand in the fitness tracker space, but its wrist accessories aren’t for everyone. Fortunately, there’s the Fitbit Zip that conveniently clips onto a coat, shirt or jean pocket and tracks your steps, distance traveled, and calories burned throughout your day.

It connects to your phone via the Fitbit app, allowing for wireless syncing of data so you can view your weekly progress. There’s also a popular social element built into the app which lets you connect with friends in fun challenges to keep yourself motivated.

The Fitbit Zip is available in a variety of fun color options and is water resistant. Best of all, you don’t have to worry about recharging it since it comes with a replaceable watch battery that lasts up to six months of wear. For a hassle-free Fitbit experience when you’re just looking to track steps, the Fitbit Zip is an affordable and convenient option.

See at Amazon

Jawbone UP MOVE

The Jawbone UP MOVE is another unassuming clip-on step counter that will also track your exercise and calories burned throughout the day but can also be worn on your wrist at night to calculate your hours slept and the quality of your sleep each night.

With no screen, you’ll be relying on Jawbone’s UP app on your smartphone to deliver you all the stats and information collected by the UP MOVE. The app also lets you connect with friends and family and see how you measure up on the team leaderboards.

Priced at under $15, the Jawbone UP MOVE is a great option for a someone interested in their first fitness tracker.

See at Amazon

Misfit Flash

The Misfit Flash includes all the tracking abilities you’d expect from a fitness tracker: sleep, steps, and calories. It’s also very water resistant with an IPX7 water-resistance rating — not quite enough to guarantee it for swimming, but certainly able to survive a rain storm.

If you hate the idea of charging your fitness tracker each night, you’ll be happy to know the Flash features outstanding battery life; it can last roughly six months on a single watch battery. It wirelessly syncs to your smartphone and transmits its data via the Misfit app.

Misfit Flash starts at around $18 and goes up to about $30 depending on which color you’d prefer.

See at Amazon

Should I run a VPN on my Android phone?

If you want or need to use a VPN, the pros outweigh the cons when it comes to using one on your phone, too.

With recent news of privacy-eroding deregulation and the ever-present threat of online data theft, VPNs are in the news more than ever. While the merits of which one is the best and why is a hot subject, little attention is paid to the obvious question — should I use one on my phone?

We’re here to talk about if you should and the reasons why!

More: The best VPN services of 2017

What is a VPN?

A VPN is a Virtual Private Network. That’s a technical term for what’s essentially a welcome middleman between you and the internet at large.

A VPN is a service you connect to that sends and receives data across the internet on your behalf. When you set up and enable a VPN, all of your internet traffic goes through it, both ways. Ideally, this traffic is encrypted and only the two parties who should have access to the information are able to use it.

A VPN is a gateway that sends and receives data on your behalf.

There are a lot of different ways to set up a VPN and some are used for specific reasons. VPNs make excellent ad-blockers and companies like AdGuard offer a free VPN service that filters out ads from a known list of servers. Your work may use a VPN that can encrypt data on your machine before you send it and it can only be decrypted by the server at work while leaving other traffic untouched. Or you might want a U.S. based VPN to try all the services Google hasn’t rolled out the rest of the world yet.

Advertisement

But mostly what people are talking about when we mention a VPN is a service that is designed to protect your identity on the internet by intercepting all the traffic so that it looks like it’s not coming from or going back to you or your location.

What advantages does a VPN offer?

In the broad sense, a VPN only does one thing: direct internet traffic. But directing internet traffic has a lot of advantages!

As mentioned above, you can block ads or create a private session between you and your work network or you can even have a VPN that directs traffic to a different server depending on your login: Paid users of a service can have more perks and a faster connection than non-paid. But there are two reasons most people use a VPN:

• Access to an otherwise restricted source. There are a plenty of things like media streaming services that can’t or won’t let you use them if you’re not in the right place. We see this a lot with professional sports streams. Depending on distribution rights, you might not be able to stream a Tigers game if you live in the greater Detroit area. You can use a VPN that’s hosted somewhere with geographic access and the service will work because that’s where it thinks you are.

• Security and privacy. A VPN is not foolproof, but using one with wholly encrypted connections from a reputable company creates what’s called a tunnel that acts as a one-stop connection between you and whatever you’re doing on the internet. This makes the data difficult to intercept by anyone or any service (except the VPN company itself) and if it were grabbed, almost impossible to decipher. While a lot of people think of this as a way to hide who you are, it can also be used to verify who you are. Both are strong reasons to use a VPN, and people like journalists and investigators can see or say things in private. And so can everyone else. Privacy is not just for the select few.

Of course, people with bad intentions can use a VPN to have the same privacy and security. Like encryption, we shouldn’t let this fact make us think that they are a bad thing overall.

The downsides of using a VPN

Like everything else, there are downsides to using a VPN. And we shouldn’t gloss over them because we want to tout the privacy factor.

Operating a VPN is difficult so make sure you choose a good company.

The biggest is the technical hurdle. Effectively operating a VPN requires an understanding of network security issues and a way to make sure it is effective against them. All the privacy and security of using a VPN goes out the window if the administrator doesn’t know exactly how things like the Same Origin Policy or CORS work and what they need to do to work around the issues they present where cookies (small files a website uses to “remember” you) are involved. This stuff is pretty complicated.

Advertisement

That’s why you have to know you are using a VPN service you trust. The company must be honest and open with their policies in relation to privacy and be fully competent and up-to-date on how computer networking is constantly evolving. Don’t try to rent an online server and run your own VPN if you don’t know what you’re doing and don’t jump on a friends home-brewed VPN unless they know what they are doing. Stick to recommend companies that have been scrutinized and audited by the pros.

A couple of other things that might not be great about using a VPN:

• The connection can be terrible. You might have great internet service and all the things you like are fast, but when you place a VPN in the mix you probably will see things get slower. Sometimes, too slow. The good news is that another VPN may not be too slow.
• You share an internet address with others. A VPN masks your internet address (I.P.) and replaces it with their own. That means if I get blocked from a service while using that address and you get it the next time, you’re blocked, too. An otherwise excellent VPN company may end up being blocked at your favorite website, or your bank, or the IRS site you file your taxes through. This can also add extra scrutiny by law enforcement when you’ve done nothing wrong: The person using that address before you may have been doing something sketchy.

So, should I or shouldn’t I?

Sure!

While not everyone wants or needs to use a VPN if you do there’s no reason not to use it with your phone. Most VPN companies have an easy to setup app you can install that gets you connected and has an easy way to turn things on and off. Some even have extras for things like bandwidth monitoring so you know how close you are to any data limits. And a properly configured VPN (we go back to those technical hurdles) should work for all data that moves in and out of your phone, whether you’re on Wi-Fi or using your data connection.

A VPN works with your web browser and every app on your phone.

You will have a little bit of extra overhead, as an app that encrypts and decrypts the data and properly routes it through the VPN is running in the background, but the impact is minimal with a properly coded VPN app or a manual setup. You won’t notice a proper VPN app when it’s running unless you look for it. Google themselves use a VPN for Project Fi users who connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots. You’ll literally not know anything extra is happening.

The downsides still remain, but as long as you’re using a recommended company who has a safe and secure VPN service, you’ll probably never run into any of them. We hate to say “probably” as much as you hate hearing it, but it’s true. Customers who would cause themselves to be blacklisted from a service or draw the attention of law enforcement usually aren’t using consumer VPN services.

Look for a company that’s recommended by other people who share similar interests, has a great app for your phone, and has a clear and concise set of policies (and read them). If you want or need a VPN, there’s no reason not to use it on your phone!

How to watch the Champions League in VR

It’s time for the Champions League finals, and now you can watch in VR!

The UEFA Champions League finals are nearly here, and you know what that means. Great Football matches from teams all over Europe competing against one another. Soccer, for those americans, but Football to everyone else. The UEFA has some great games, and this year they are more accessible than ever because you can watch right from YouTube. Even better, you’ll be able to watch in VR, provided you have a VR headset capable of using Youtube. We’ve got the details for you here!

Read more at VRHeads.com!