What’s happened: A fresh report from Korea claims the Samsung Galaxy S26 – the next flagship smartphone we expect Samsung to launch – will arrive with enhanced NFC connectivity for improved contactless payments.
This is important because: As manufacturers continue to try and find ways to tempt customers to their brand, there’s a need to offer feature parity with rivals, as part of making a potential switch even easier.
Why should I care? While the addition of an NFC antenna might not seem like major news, it’s these small quality of life upgrades which can make all the difference when it comes to your day-to-day satisfaction with your tech.
Okay, what’s next? This is a very early Galaxy S26 rumor, as we don’t expect Samsung’s next flagship smartphone series to launch until January 2026 at the earliest. The S25 series arrived in January this year. There’s at least five months between now and a possible S26 introduction, and a lot can change in that time, so take this report with a pinch of salt.
A virtual private network (VPN) encrypts your internet traffic and routes it through a server run by the VPN provider. Websites see the VPN server’s IP address instead of yours, and you can get around geo-blocks, censorship, and ISP throttling. The best VPN services are paid, but there are still a handful of free options that do the job well.
Most free VPNs come with a hidden cost, because running servers isn’t cheap and a company that doesn’t charge you has to make its money somewhere else. Many do so by logging your browsing activity and selling it to advertisers, while others flood you with ads and track you across apps.
There's nothing quite like curling up with a good book on a cold evening. As much as I love the feel of a physical book, books take up a lot of space, and carrying more than one on a trip quickly becomes a chore. That's where e-readers come in, and the Amazon Kindle remains one of the best options.
Amazon just refreshed its Kindle lineup with thinner, lighter designs, a new flush-front display, and colors that wrap from front to back. Add the Kindle Scribe and the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft to the mix, and you have more choices than ever before.
A good Android app should earn its place on your phone. It might make an everyday task easier, handle something the built-in software can't, or let you change an experience that never quite worked for you.
These 20 apps cover everything from quick notes and password management to automation and local file sharing. Some are free, others charge for advanced features, and a few take some effort to figure out. The point isn't to install them all. It's to find the ones that make your phone work better for you.