A 10 year old gamer has just hit the headlines for making £600 of in-app purchases on the free iPhone game, Hay Day.
Well, we say “free”, we actually mean “free-to-play”. There’s a distinction to be made, and it’s one that’s worth getting clear in your head if you have others in your household who may run the risk of racking up huge bills.
First up, a free game. A free game is just that: a game that is free. And that’s the end of the story as far as that goes.
But what about free-to-play? What does it even mean?
What is free-to-play?
It’s a concept that started back in the mid-90s, with casual/social online role-playing games offering the chance for people to play them totally free of charge.
It was the ideal way to lure in non-gamers – “here, you don’t have to pay £50 or a monthly subscription to start playing, so join in!” Purchases of items, clothing, powers etc were made with real money to fund the game’s development.
This model spread along with the internet’s ubiquity, to the point we’re at now: the majority of cash from mobile gaming is made through in-app purchases, and most of these purchases come from free-to-play games.
Take, for example, The Simpsons: Tapped Out – you download it for free, you play for a while, and you want to speed up your progress. You can either wait a while, or just put down some money to get the in-game currency of ‘doughnuts’, allowing you to skip the wait.
These packs of doughnuts range from £1.49 all the way up to £69.99 – they are not numbers to be sniffed at. But some people want to pay it for their own enjoyment of the game, and that’s fine.
Not just doughnuts
There are countless other examples, with new levels, powers, characters, clothing, progress and anything else you can think of locked behind a paywall.
And it’s not just mobile gaming: we’re seeing more console and PC games go down the F2P route, with titles like Team Fortress 2, Tekken Revolution and the upcoming Killer Instinct on Xbox One going that way.
Free-to-play tends to be just that – but only to a point. As long as you’re aware of the fact you will be nudged (gently or otherwise) to parting with some cash, you can avoid many issues people tend to have with ‘freemium’ apps.
More and more of us are falling for a range of holiday and travel scams.
A new report compiled by the City of London Police’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau showed scammers stole £11.5 million from unsuspecting travellers in 2015 –up a staggering 425% compared to 2014.
Cases spike in the summer months and December, which suggests that fraudsters are homing in on holidaymakers and people making last-minute arrangements for Christmas. The most commonly-targeted age group is 30-49, many of whom will have young families, the report found.
Victims lose nearly £3,000 on average, with almost half of them (44%) saying that the fraud also had a significant impact on their health.
Common holiday scams to watch out for
Be extra careful when booking these as they're prime targets for fraudsters.
Holiday accommodation
Scammers are adept at making up fake websites which look astonishingly like the real thing. They also hack into legitimate accounts and post fake adverts on websites and social media.
Airline tickets
These cases involve customers booking a flight and receiving a fake ticket or paying for a ticket that just doesn’t turn up.
Last year, flights to Nigeria, India and Pakistan were heavily targeted, suggesting that those visiting friends and family are more vulnerable.
Sports and religious trips
Tickets with limited availability are a magnet for fraudsters because of the higher prices they can grab. Experts predict that both the European Football Championships in France and the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will be major draws for scammers.
Timeshares and holiday clubs
Victims lose between £9,000 and £35,000 each to timeshare and holiday club fraud, making up over a quarter (26%) of the total reported amounts lost.
How to avoid becoming a victim of travel fraud
Now that we’re coming up to peak holiday season, it’s vital that you stay sharp when booking that holiday.
City of London Police Commander Chris Greany, Police National Coordinator for Economic Crime, said:
“We live in a world where we are under pressure to get things done quickly. However, when booking a holiday it is vitally important you take your time and follow a number of basic checks designed to protect you from falling victim to a fraud.”
Do some thorough research on companies you don’t recognise before you confirm any arrangements. Start by checking the company’s credentials – if it’s defrauding people, victims will likely have posted their story online or contacted the press.
Look for the ABTA or ATOL logo to confirm that the company is legitimate. You can verify membership on their respective websites.
Even though it’s quick and easy, don’t pay direct into the owner’s bank account. It’s much more difficult to trace and retrieve your funds, similar to paying in cash.
Try and pay by credit card if you can – transactions over £100 will likely be covered by your credit card provider under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.
Study receipts, invoices and small print, and be very wary of companies that don’t provide any at all. If you’re booking through a holiday club or timeshare, ask a solicitor to comb through the documentation before signing up.
As always, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You can find more information about how to stay safe when booking or researching travel online at Get Safe Online and report anything suspicious to Action Fraud.
You could save hundreds by following these simple online shopping tricks
Online shopping makes it even easier for our shopping habbits to run away with us.
Before you know it, from the comfort of your own computer, you have purchased a number of things you didn't necesarily need which will be delivered straight to your home.
So before embarking on your next spree, here are some tips to help you save money.
Abandon your basket
One savvy trick you could try when shopping online is to ditch your basket.
This involves signing in to a website, adding items to your basket, but then leaving the site without making a purchase.
Often retailers, keen for a sale, will send you an email offering you money off to come back and complete the transaction.
New Look has been known to offer discounts of up to 20% while ASOS often doles out 10% codes to shoppers.
Sign up to newsletters
Online retailers are keen to get you on their mailing list, so many offer an incentive for signing up to their newsletter.
At H&M for example you can get 25% off one item and free standard delivery on your next purchase. At Gap you can get 20% off full-price styles when you sign up, while over at & Other Stories you can get 10% off your next purchase.
Even if a retailer doesn’t offer an incentive, newsletters are a good way to stay in the loop about sales, store events and other offers that could benefit you.
If you’re worried about your inbox being overrun with newsletters, you could set up a separate address to manage them.
Haggle on live chat
More and more retailers now offer a live chat service with a person to help you out when shopping online.
So rather than dismissing the pop up you could use it to haggle for a better deal on something you want to buy.
The online helpers for retailers like Nike, Dell and Dyson have been known to offer discounts of 10% or more, just for asking.
Earn cashback
When shopping online should ALWAYS check whether you can get cashback viaTopCashback or Quidco before you make a purchase.
These free websites allow you to earn a percentage back on what you spend by shopping through tracked links for retailers.
To help make it even easier both TopCashback and Quidco have reminder widgets that you can download that will alert you each time you’re on a site where you can earn cashback, so you’ll never miss out on a saving.
Hunt for voucher codes
As well as checking out whether you can earn cashback you should also check if you can score some money off with a voucher code.
Delivery charges can be a real shock when you come to the online checkout for your shop.
But there are ways to avoid this cost.
Some retailers like New Look and Amazon offer the choice of picking up your order from a store or locker rather than getting it delivered to your home.
Most offer this service for free or for a much smaller fee and it’s often more convenient as you don’t have to get someone to wait in for a delivery or run the chance of missing it.
Also if you shop regularly with a retailer, there may be a scheme that can offer you a way to save.
ASOS for example has ASOS Premier, which offers unlimited next day delivery (normally £5.95) or nominated day delivery (£6.95) for a year. It costs £9.95 but if you’re planning to shop with the retailer more than twice a year it’s worth investing.
Get a better offer
Websites like Flubit and Beat My Deal say they can get you a better deal on what you want to buy online.
Flubit is in the business of trying to beat Amazon’s prices. All you have to do is copy and paste the link of an item you want to buy and it will try to generate a better offer. The firm claims it can save shoppers between 10-15%.
Beat My Deal on the other hand allows you to paste a link to any deal you’ve found online and invite other retailers to try and beat the offer with either a better price, better delivery, warranty guarantees or something else to seal the deal.
Both websites are free to use and there is no obligation to buy anything.
Track price drops and sales
It’s hard to keep up with the latest sales and offers, but there are price tracking websites dedicated to keeping you in the know.
LoveSales for example monitors price drops and sales at your favourite retailers.The site offers a toolbar button you can download which allows you to add items to your watch list as you browse the web, set a price you would like to pay for it and create an alert for if it drops in price.
Amazon shoppers should try using CamelCamelCamel or ZeeZaw, which are dedicated to tracking Amazon prices. You can enter a maximum price you are willing to pay and get an alert when it hits this target or falls below it.
A whole avocado fruit contains 10 grams of fibers.
2. Contains vitamins C, E, K, folic acid, magnesium, and potassium.
Which makes avocado perfect for healthy skin. Being rich in vitamin E makes it a good source of anti-oxidants that is why it helps protect the skin from wrinkles and damage caused by sun, smoke, and pollution.
3. 60% of the fat in avocado is monosaturated and it contains no cholesterol.
Monosaturated fats are heart-healthy. A study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that 0.5 to 1.5 avocado per day is the most effective way in lowering cholesterol without decreasing the HDL (healthy) cholesterol. These unsaturated oils in avocado are in the second position after olive oil. Scientists believe that these healthy fats help to maintain the water level in your skin and supply the skin with the fats that keep the bricks and mortar of the skin healthy. This translates into less itchy, healthy-looking, glowing skin.
4. Low level of carbohydrates.
That is why, ladies, you will not gain much weight when adding avocados to your diet!
5. Contains omega-3
Omega-3 is good for your joints, skin, vision, brain, heart, helps lower bad cholesterol levels and even boosts fertility. Omega-3 is a well known anti-ager and an anti-inflammatory. Adding avocado to your diet helps control acne
6. Perfect moisturizer especially for dry skin.
Avocados act as humectants; that is, they draw water into the skin and plump it up, giving it a more youthful quality, and minimizing the appearance of fine lines.
7. Avocado gives you shiny hair.
Your hair needs proteins and healthy fat to keep it healthy and shiny and avocados is one of the good sources for healthy fats,omega-3, as well as biotins (vitamin B).
As you can see, avocados are rich in many natural beauty factors. And this makes it necessary to add it to your diet to get the advantage of all those avocado benefits. In my next post, I will be sharing with you some of the most delicious avocado recipes I have found online. Always remember that your skin and body need healthy diet in addition toskin care products.
Read on to discover what your nails might be trying to tell you...
If your nails are peeling
Peeling nails could indicate that your body is unable to absorb minerals properly. It could be that you’re not chewing your food properly or that you have a low amount of stomach acid, meaning your food isn’t digested properly.
If you've got dry cuticles
It may seem obvious but yes, dry cuticles indicate a level of dehydration. People who wash their hands a lot or are always doing the washing up are more likely to suffer from this. Clair suggests using a nourishing cuticle oil to help hydrate the cuticles and the nail bed itself.
If your nails have grooves
Known as ‘pitting’ of the nail bed, small dots or cracks in your nails could be a sign of psoriasis, an inflammatory disease that leads to scaly or red patches all over the body, or trauma to the nail bed.
If your nails have white spots or lines
These can indicate that your daily intake of sugar is too high – are you having too much fruit or chocolate? If you see white marks, try to up your fibre, vegetable and whole grain intake.
If your nails are yellow
Yellow nails are rather unsightly and their cause could be linked to discolouration from smoking, wearing nail polish too often without a base coat or even a nail fungus. Try to give your nails a few days without nail polish every few weeks and always use a clear base coat to avoid staining the nail. If the problem doesn’t improve, see your doctor.
If your nails are brittle
We all break a nail from time to time but if yours are more sensitive than most and crack or break easily, it could be down to your thyroid or liver. Too little thyroid hormone often leads to hair loss and brittle nails that grow extremely slowly and are more likely to lift away from the nail bed. Or it could indicate liver congestion from lack of vegetables. Seek your Doctor’s advice if you’re concerned.
If your nails are hard to grow
As Clair explains, hard to grow nails are like combination skin and it can be hard to pinpoint the problem. Trauma to the nail can be a contributor, and heavy typers sometimes find their nails won’t grow past a certain length. Clair recommends keeping your nails short and regularly cutting them to encourage growth.
In the ever-changing world of high-tech gadgets and gizmos, a whole load of jargon is thrown our way that many of us don’t necessarily understand.
In our regular series What is… we tackle a tech term or object and explain what it means so you can understand it a bit more.
Here we explain Spotify, an online streaming service that is changing the way we consume music.
What is Spotify?
Spotify is a leading music streaming provider, which allows users to listen to music using an internet connection.
There are more than 30 million tracks on Spotify, accessible at the click of a button on PCs, smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, PlayStations and many more devices.
All you need is an internet connection to play the tracks, although you can download tracks to listen to when you’re without a connection, but only with a paid subscription.
How much does Spotify cost?
Spotify offers both free and paid subscription types.
The free account allows you to play any artist, album or playlist in shuffle mode (where tracks are randomly selected). But you can’t select tracks individually as you please, and adverts will be played between every few tracks.
The paid account costs £9.99 a month, which gives you unlimited access to Spotify’s entire catalogue. There are no ads, you can download tracks to play offline - so you don’t always need an internet connection or use your monthly data allowance - and take advantage of better sound quality.
Spotify also offers discounts for families who require more than one account, and students.
Spotify is a great way of trying new music, especially if you have a mobile phone or tablet. They offer a 30-day free trial of the premium subscription, so it could be a good way to see whether it’s right for you. You can cancel at any time too.
But remember, this is a streaming service, not download. This means you can’t keep a copy on your computer or other device – the offline mode allows you to keep tracks within the app. So you don’t get to keep tracks even if you decide to leave afterwards.
If you’ve got lots of CDs that you’re happy with already, it may not be worth using a streaming service. But if you’re looking for old classics you don’t already own, Spotify could still be of interest.
Given the price tag, this is one for serious Star Wars fans. The special edition HP laptop not only comes with a design inspired by the film franchise – including a rather dashing red backlit keyboard – but with a collection of rare Star Wars content pre-loaded on it. There’s original trilogy storyboards, wallpapers and screen savers too.
Aside from that, this is a powerful laptop, there’s a 1TB hard drive and 6GB RAM so it will run smoothly even if you’ve got lots of programmes running at the same time. It’s also powered by an Intel Core i5-6200U processor which will keep things running quickly.
Use the force to eat your evening meal with these themed chop sticks. Powered by watch batteries (included) they light up at the click of a button.
They’re not just a fun novelty though – they’re fully functioning, lightweight and easy to grip. Available in three colours, Darth Vader (red), Yoda (green) and Luke Skywalker (blue), you can reuse them but you’ll want to handwash them rather than stick them in the dishwasher.
Released to coincide with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this gadget has proved incredibly popular. The palm-sized droid with a magnetic head spins, turns and speeds off while making all the noises and expressions of the well-loved film character – and it will even watch the film with you and react to all the key moments.
You control it via your smartphone/tablet and it connects via Bluetooth. The app allows you to operate the little fellow by voice commands and you can create holographic videos with it too.
If your computer is situated on the dark side of the room (sorry), brighten it up with this USB-powered mood light. An exact replica of the 1977 Death Star, the battle station comes to life when you lightly press the surface.
It gives off a strong white glow creating a peaceful environment in your room – well, as relaxing as a light inspired by a Galactic Empire weapon can be.
Love drinking tea? Love Star Wars? Then why not combine the two. The decent-sized mug comes not only with Star Wars characters wrapped around it, but will also play sound effects when you take a sip.
There are six sounds – including the swish of a lightsaber and Chewbacca’s roar. Just make sure you’ve got a chocolate bar right next to you to go alongside your hot drink, otherwise you’ll be craving a Galaxy (that’s) far, far away…
At two-foot tall, this is one of the larger radio control toys you’ll come across (and one of the more exciting ones too).
Inflate the droid, then attach the R/C unit to R2-D2′s base, then it’s just a case of using the controller to send him on his way. Not only does he go backwards and forwards but he spins 360 degrees and makes four noises as he goes. When you’ve finished playing you can of course deflate the Star Wars legend, making it an easy-to-store toy.
If you’re unashamedly obsessed with droids (who wouldn’t be?), then why not bring a touch of robot activity to the workplace?
This 12cm character, designed just to look like the real thing, sucks up desktop crumbs and dust through his front leg. He comes with a screw-top lid so mini R2 can be easily emptied when full.
May the phone battery always be with you with this sleek looking lightsaber charger. It can be used with any USB gadget and even works as a torch with LED lights along the side (in case you literally enter the dark side).
Not only does the chrome casing look accurate yet still elegant, it also holds enough power to fully charge an iPhone 5 twice.
What could be better than blasting your tunes out than the Millennium Falcon? You can wirelessly stream music through the fastest ship in the galaxy, from a decent 30ft away, from an iPad, iPhone, Android or other Bluetooth devices.
The ship lights up when in use and, if you don’t fancy listening to your own songs, it comes with a feature to play the Star Wars theme tune as well. What more could you want from a speaker?
