Inhaltsverzeichnis für October 2018 in TechLife

FROM JUNE 29TH, 2007, TO JULY 16TH, 2008, A STAGGERING 6.12 MILLION iPHONES WERE SOLD AROUND THE WORLD. JOBS WASN’T KIDDING WHEN HE SAID THAT APPLE WOULD REINVENT THE PHONE. THE LIST AND history of technology that has shaped mankind is long. For the sake of space and simplicity, let’s start with the internet. Tim Berners-Lee published the first webpage on what we can legitimately call ‘the internet’ in November 1989, whilst working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), before it went live to the outside world in August, 1991. Consider that the birth of the internet. Berners-Lee created it to facilitate the sharing of ideas in a free and open manner, shunning the notion of privatisation so that there wouldn’t be multiple World Wide Webs. Summing up…

WHILE THE ROLLOUT of Australia’s national broadband service has admittedly not been a smooth ride, things do seem to have been improving over the course of 2018. According to the ACCC’s second ‘Measuring Broadband Australia’ report, only 7.4% of NBN customers are receiving less than half the maximum internet speed promised in their chosen plan. While that percentage is still a significant number, the ACCC report finds that it could be due to “physical limitations” — like the use of old routers that don’t support high speeds — rather than shortcomings in the amount of available bandwidth or other larger infrastructure issues. On the other hand, around two thirds of users are seeing speeds that are at least 90% of what their plan promises. While there hasn’t been much improvement…

HOTELTONIGHT UNBEATABLE LAST-MINUTE HOTEL DEALS. Free | www.hoteltonight.com If you’ve left your planning to the last minute, or you’re looking at the feasibility of a spontaneous getaway, then Hotels Tonight should be the first app you fire up. This specialist last-minute accommodation app only lets you look at offers at up to 7 days out and you can only stay a maximum of 5 nights. If you can work with these caveats, it’s possible to nab a premium hotel room for a fraction of what you’d normally pay. HOSTEL WORLD YOUR PASSPORT TO BACKPACKER ACCOMMODATION. Free | www.hostelworld.com If you’re travelling on the proverbial shoestring, then a hotel is a decadence that you wouldn’t even consider unless you absolutely had to. Fortunately, Hostel World is a top notch accommodation app…

[ IOS, ANDROID ] PAPRIKA RECIPE MANAGER $7.99 | www.paprikaapp.com Find, create and store your favourite recipes. The app makes it as easy to add the most complex of recipes — able to specify serving size, difficulty level, ingredients, cooking time, even add photos, with recipes also able to be sourced from the web. Meals are organised by category, with the ability to search based on an ingredient. A pantry feature helps you keep track of the food you already have on hand. [ TB ] [ IOS, ANDROID ] NETFLIX From $9.99/m | www.netflix.com/au The US streaming giant has quickly become a staple in Australian homes. Its edge over the competition is its extensive catalogue of original and exclusive content. It’s got a good blend of both classic and…

[ IOS, ANDROID ] AUDIBLE www.audible.com.au | $16.45/m Offering an unbeatable choice of premium titles, Audible has definitely earned its position as the biggest name in the world of audiobooks. The selection is amazing and, while it is subscription-based, there are a couple options available for you to choose from, allowing you to buy books individually or pay to access them all. It’s available on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Amazon Alexa-enabled devices. [ CS ] [ ANDROID ] MONOSPACE underwoodapps.com | Free Modern software is full of feature creep and bloat, it wants you to sign up for an account in order to make a short shopping list, which it will then store in the cloud (and possibly share with Russia). Monospace is different. It’s a simple, meat-and-potatoes notes…

WE COULD ALL do with a few extra hours of juice from our portable products sometimes. Maybe you’re on a long journey with no charger, or maybe your device is old and the battery life isn’t what it used to be. Either way, the result is the same — you need a bit of magic to keep it going. Well, magic is exactly what we’ve got here. Using the tips and tricks on these pages, you’ll know which power-hungry features you can do without on your iOS devices or Mac to eke out every drop of electricity. And we’ll show you how to check up on your battery, and stay topped up with power on the go!…

APPLE PUTS IN a lot of effort to give its laptops all-day battery life, despite them being thinner and lighter than ever. But it’s always trying to strike a balance between power, convenience and longevity. If you want to prioritise keeping your laptop going for as long as possible, or trying to get an older MacBook with a struggling battery a bit closer to the running time it used to offer, there are some especially effective things you can do to save power. Each of these will have a small effect on their own, but in combination, you could easily eke out an extra hour or two of battery life, which could be just what you need on a train journey if you’ve left your charger behind. It’s all about…

1 LOCATION SERVICES If an app is detecting your location in the background, it’s burning battery — GPS is intensive. Go to ‘Settings > Privacy > Location Services’. An app with a purple arrow icon is checking your location at that very moment! Let’s take control... 2 GPS ON YOUR TERMS Tap an app to get three options. ‘Never’ means the app can’t ever access your location. ‘While Using’ means it can only get your location when it’s open on the screen. ‘Always’ means it can use it any time, even when in the background. 3 CUT BACK ON WI-FI Yes, this again! If you won’t use Wi-Fi, turn it off. Go to ‘Settings > Wi-Fi’ and flick the switch. Don’t do it from Control Centre — in iOS 11,…

“MOBILE PHONES CAN BRING A PLANE DOWN” HAVE YOU EVER noticed that, sometimes, usually just before your phone rings, your speakers start emitting a static sound? That’s cellular interference, and it’s quite annoying. It’s even more annoying if it’s being blasted through your headset when you’re a member of the flight crew trying to organise irritated passengers while simultaneously preparing to launch an 80-tonne plane 12,000 metres into the air. Not being allowed to use your phone onboard actually has nothing to do with potentially causing a crash: it’s more due to the risk of this cellular interference sound distracting flight crew. There is almost no risk of causing a plane crash because you were using your phone, but aviation authorities understandably choose to err on the side of caution.…

WHILE MOST USERS with newer phones are already running Android 8 Oreo, plenty are still waiting for the update. But Google has recently released the public beta for the latest version — Android P. Not surprisingly, it can be installed on Google’s own Pixel and Pixel 2 phones, as well as models from OnePlus, Sony, Xiaomi, Oppo, Nokia and Vivo. For the rest of us, though, with a little elbow grease, it’s entirely possible to replicate some of the best features on older versions of Android. The best part is that no root access is needed, but most of the apps need to be sideloaded, meaning they are downloaded from sites and services other than the Google Play Store (we included instructions on how to do that). We ran through…

MAKE YOUR PHOTOS PROFESSIONAL GRADE TWEAK AND OPTIMISE IMAGES WITH ASHAMPOO PHOTO OPTIMIZER 2018 FULL VERSION WORTH $30 Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2018 makes your images look better. Automatic optimisation is at the heart of the program and enhances images at the click of a button. This is achieved through detailed image analysis that reveals possible weak points. Pale colours, incorrect exposure settings or wrong colour temperature — Photo Optimizer’s algorithm finds them all. The new version also features automatic white balancing and contrast spreading for even better results. Auto-optimisation has been refined and fine-tuned with the help of 5,000 customers to precisely fit the needs of ambitious photographers. Naturally, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2018 also includes indispensable image editing tools to adjust colours, rotate and mirror or resize and crop images.…

REVISED NSW ROAD RULES WILL HEAVILY PENALISE DRIVERS CAUGHT USING THEIR PHONE FROM SEPTEMBER 2018, YOU’LL COP MORE DEMERITS. In addition to installing new tech in traffic cameras that automatically detect phones, NSW drivers will cop five demerit points for the illegal use of mobile phones while on the road from September. Drivers are allowed to use their phones for calls, music and navigation, but only if the device is in a cradle. However, learner, P1 and P2 drivers aren’t allowed to use a phone at all. [HD] FACEBOOK SUFFERS WORST WEEK IN COMPANY HISTORY THE COST OF USER DISSATISFACTION. The social media platform’s recent quarterly earnings report showed it lost approximately a million monthly users and 3 million daily users in Europe, and experienced no user growth in the…

THE FANCY TICWATCH PRO FLAUNTS ITS SUPERIORITY WITH A THICK METAL BEZEL AND A PHYSICAL TIME DIAL HELPING TO FRAME AND ENHANCE THE HUNDREDS OF DIGITAL WATCH FACES ON OFFER. THE INBUILT GPS SEEMS TO BE ACCURATE ENOUGH FOR FITNESS TRACKING WITH FULL SPEED AND HEART RATE BREAKDOWNS OVER A MAPPED EXERCISE ROUTE. THE TICWATCH SPORT (S) and Express (E) that we featured in the last issue of TechLife championed the powerful yet affordable balance that made Mobvoi the crowdfunding success story it is today — but the company’s latest smartwatch is changing up this success recipe by launching a new device in the premium smartwatch space. The fancy Ticwatch Pro flaunts its superiority with a thick metal bezel and a physical time dial helping to frame and enhance the…

AS TIME BETWEEN MEALS PASSES, THE AMOUNT OF GLUCOSE AVAILABLE TO THE BRAIN DECREASES, TRIGGERING THE RELEASE OF STRESS HORMONES... OUR BODIES RUN on an in-built 24-hour clock embedded in a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Its 20,000 nerve cells sit in the middle of the brain above the back of the eyes and on top of a structure called the hypothalamus. These are the body’s master timekeepers, setting the rhythm for sleeping, waking, eating and hormone release. Even in a test tube, cells from the SCN keep time. They are stuffed with molecules called transcription factors, which change the production levels of other molecules on a 24-hour cycle. The master regulators are known as BMAL and CLOCK. Together, these two molecules activate the production of…

FOLLOWING THE RISE of the smartphone, there’s now rarely ever a camera not within arm’s reach. Whether it’s selfies, couple photos or cute snaps of your dog, images have become an important tool for documenting anything and everything that occurs during our day-to-day lives, being furthered especially thanks to the rise of social networks such as Instagram. And yet, what hasn’t changed is that pro photography continues to be something that demands both skill and appreciation. Enter Flickr, a social network designed primarily for photographers — a place where snappers can come together to share their greatest photos with a community of like-minded users. While the platform has experienced increasing competition from other image-hosting sites, it’s Flickr’s extensive collection of features that continue to make it the go-to place for…

THIS MONTH’S VR coverage takes us from the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert to the tomb of an Egyptian queen, dating back to 1255 BC. Somewhere in the middle of this expansive timeline sits reimagined virtual renditions of Philip K Dick’s The Great C and a horror game that’ll dial up the fear factor based on your heart rate. Looking through to AR, we see the emergence of animated Harry-Potter- picture-like Magic playing cards and a handy Amazon app lens that’ll identify screws and parts, so you can easily identify and re-order replacement parts. Not surprisingly, the neural nets are catching some of the biggest stories again this month uncovering China’s plans to build AI Kamikaze subs, the world’s first optical neural nets and AI that’s learning to…

SOMETIMES, IT’S HARD TO KNOW WHERE YOU WANT TO STAY WITHOUT KNOWING EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT TO DO FIRST... TO-DO LIST Sometimes, it’s hard to know where you want to stay without knowing exactly what you want to do first. Apps like TripAdvisor and Airbnb have their own curated to-do lists and popular experience sections that’ll help you get a feel for where all the action is — helping you choose where you’d like to stay, or alternatively where you’d like to keep away from... RESTAURANTS In much the same way as proximity to activities will affect where you stay, everyone’s gotta eat and having the best restaurants nearby is a critical factor. Airbnb and TripAdvisor are again the best apps for working out if there are good restaurants near…

THE PLANTRONICS RIG line of headphones follow a familiar design lineage. Not a bad thing, as the Rig 500 family is peerless when it comes to balancing comfort and sound quality at a decent price. New for this year is a simple and elegant volume control system designed for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, where the Rig’s control knob sits flush with the bottom edge of the respective controller. A bespoke plastic mount around the dial offers good purchase on the controller, and gives you quick access to the master volume (not chat volume, sorry) rather than fumbling through your console’s menu system or grasping for an inline slider. Slip them on and the floating headband holds the sturdy frame above your head. The Esports version we tested here (there…

Logitech MK850 $129 | www.logitech.com As someone who regularly works across Mac and Windows devices constantly, there always seemed to be a pretty hard divide between computers when it came to the mouse and keyboard inputs. The Logitech MK850 Performance keyboard and mouse combo was the first system we had that could cycle between three connected Mac or Windows PCs using the one keyboard and mouse. So transformative was this feature that Logitech built on it further in the MX Master 2s, which allowed you to go from the screen of one PC to the screen of another, as easily as two displays connected to the same system. [ JB ] Samsung Portable SSD T5 www.samsung.com/au | From $149 While the 437 and 444MB/s sequential Q32T1 read and write speeds…

YOU’RE PROBABLY ALREADY aware that iOS works differently to the Mac when it comes to power management. Apps can’t just run in the background eating up battery power — if they’re not visible on screen, they can only operate in very limited ways in the background. This means you don’t have to worry about quitting all apps to save battery life in quite the same way — but some apps still tend to hog energy more than others, and you’ll want to identify them. In Settings, tap the Battery option (in the third group down). The Battery Usage section will tell you exactly which apps are responsible for running down your charge. Apps are listed in descending order of culpability, showing what percentage of your total power expenditure each is…

AS WE MENTIONED earlier, Lithium-ion batteries degrade over time — or sometimes, earlier than they should. If you’re seeing really low battery life, it’s useful to check the physical health of your battery, so you know whether age has caught up with it, or — if it’s fairly new — whether you need to take a trip to the Genius Bar. On your iOS device, in ‘Settings > Battery’, a message should show at the top of the page saying that your battery needs to be serviced, if that’s the case. But that’s a bit vague — we want more information! CoconutBattery is a free Mac app (coconut-flavour.com) that tells you the maximum charge your battery can currently hold, and how that compares to when it was new, immediately indicating…

[ HARDWARE ] Flaky Ethernet connection Since upgrading to fibre broadband, my PC’s Ethernet connection has kept dropping out. I have a Wi-Fi adaptor, which works fine with it, and none of my other Ethernet-connected devices have any problems. What’s the cure? TOM WEST Mayank Sharma replies: This could be either a driver problem or a hardware glitch. Tom tried a different Ethernet cable as well as router port, all to no avail, plus verified he had the latest drivers installed. The upgrade to fibre appears to have been coincidental, although the act of plugging the PC’s Ethernet cable into a new router may have triggered or exacerbated an underlying issue. Tom revealed that his Ethernet port — which was part of his PC’s motherboard — did wiggle…

DO YOU CRAVE time away from the hustle and bustle of daily life? Phones and tablets enable us to be always online, but the boundaries between our digital, work and personal lives are increasingly blurred, meaning we get fewer opportunities to switch off from the distractions that our devices bring, short of turning them off. Apple’s solution to this is Do Not Disturb — a feature which, when activated, silences all notifications, alerts, incoming phone calls, and messages for a set period of time or until you deactivate it. Don’t worry, though; you won’t miss a thing. Your iPhone collects all of the alerts together, while your phone stays dark and silent, and delivers them to you together once you deactivate the mode. SELECTIVELY ALLOW CALLS 01 BLOCK ALL CALLS…

WE TRUST SO much information to our mobiles that the compromise of one can be truly devastating. And for most of us, all that’s protecting that information is a single lock screen. In Apple devices and more recent Androids, that does actually provide some protection. The unlock passcodes can’t be brute-forced because the phone will lock up after a number of failed attempts (see ‘Unlocking the phone’ opposite), while the storage of the device is encrypted so that the OS can’t be bypassed. But many recent devices also have an additional unlock method: biometrics, such as fingerprint scanners and face recognition. Just how secure is that biometric lock? This month, we’re going to take a look. FINGERPRINT READERS Many current mobile phones allow you to unlock the phone with your…

if necessary. NEW RULES HAVE been laid down by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) that every telco now has to follow after the government body conducted research into the state of the NBN. It found that “almost one in six households moving to an NBN service was left without a working connection for more than a week” and “for almost one in ten households, the interruption was for more than two weeks”. To fix the migration hiccoughs, ACMA now requires all telcos to conduct a line test to ensure a customer’s NBN connection is working after installation and also verify that the existing copper wire used to connect the customer to the NBN is capable of delivering the maximum speeds specified in the chosen plan. They must also…

FLICKR VR Free www.flickr.com/vr A cool yet slightly niche feature is the ability to view photos using a virtual reality headset. Simply download the Flickr VR App on a compatible Oculus device and you’ll be able to view equirectangular photos in 360° goodness. UPLOADR Requires Flickr Pro subscription www.flickr.com/tools Available exclusively to Flickr Pro users, the Uploadr tool makes it easy to continuously and automatically upload photos from a computer directly to your Camera Roll. The app is available for both Windows and Mac users. FLICKR PRO Price: US$5.99 per month; US$49.99 per year www.flickr.com/account/upgrade/pro While a free account may be enough for some, upgrading to Flickr Pro unlocks a number of additional tools and features. In exchange for a monthly subscription, you’ll receive no ads, more detailed page-view statistics,…

HOLIDAYS ARE A rare chance for us to enjoy some downtime in a new place, but with so many options at your fingertips, trying to find the best place to stay can be a bit of a daunting task... especially if you’re not a native bargain hunter. With the help of the right accommodation finding app, you can cut through the high-priced hotels, sterile commercial accommodation and barely-livable budget B&Bs to easily find your ideal place to stay. While there was once simply hotels or Airbnb, the accommodation space has matured a little to include more tailored styles that’ll be better suited for particular budgets and lux levels. While not all of these apps will be to everyone’s tastes, you’re bound to find at least one of them useful for…

HumBeatz CREATE SONGS BY SHOUTING AT THINGS. $10.99 | humbeatz.com STOP US IF this sounds familiar. You’ve had a brilliant idea for a tune, or some beats, and you’re painstakingly trying to play it, trying and failing to find the right chords or notes. It’s a real pain, so say hello to HumBeatz. If you can hum it, whistle it or beatbox it, HumBeatz can play it and turn it into MIDI data. HumBeatz is based on two kinds of audio: hums and, uh, beats. Choose which one you want to use, tap record and it starts listening. When you’re done capturing your tune, it automatically analyses the pitch or percussive sounds and translates it into musical data. Your hums become piano notes; and your beats become drum machine pads.…

DEAD OR ALIVE 6 IS TONING DOWN THE SEXINESS FEMALE CHARACTERS GET SOMETHING OF A MAKEOVER. According to an interview conducted by GameInformer, director Yohei Shimbori shed some light on the new designs for the game’s female cast. “For this version, we still have Kasumi with her previous costumes,” he said, “and there are some parts that are going to jiggle or move, but we want to make it a lot more natural.” The franchise has been criticised in the past for its emphasised breast physics, so this time around, Shimbori wanted to let the characters’ “strong personality” shine instead. However, he also wanted to make clear that, while they were toning down the sexiness, “for downloadable content, we have to see what gamers really want.” HIGH SCHOOL LEAGUE OF…

IT DOESN’T LOOK like much, but this matchbox-sized gadget has the power to breathe new life into old devices. The Konecta by Aussie company Soundwhiz is both a Bluetooth transmitter and receiver, able to convert an analogue signal into something your modern speakers can pick up and play, or allow your old, favourite corded headphones to work wirelessly with your iPhone X (or any other device that transmits audio via Bluetooth). Plug a 3.5mm jack in from your source or headphones, select either TX or RX, pair it with the piece of kit you want the signal to go to or from, and you’re away. Volume controls live on the side, and while they’re a bit flat and small they have a nice click to them, so you’ll have to…

THE TECHNOLOGY SPACE has always been fast-paced, but there seems to be more companies than ever creating truly unique technologies that save you time and transform the ways in which we live our lives. Smartwatches might not have been quite as revolutionary as originally thought, but the mature wearables space is starting to incorporate integral time-saving features like NFC payment that is simple enough to let you ditch your wallet entirely, and they now offer locally stored subscription music playlists that mean you can exercise using just a watch and a pair of Bluetooth headphones. The latest external GPUs like the Razer Core X can now transform paper-thin ultrabooks like the Apple MacBook into powerful workstations or gaming rigs through a simple Thunderbolt cable. Smart speakers like Amazon’s Alexa and…

Google WiFi Mesh Routers 3-pack, $499 | store.gooGle.com The Google Wi-Fi is a slick consumer-friendly solution that’s controlled entirely with a mobile app. There is only one product, and you just buy as many of them as you need to cover your home. It’s limited to 866Mbps 802.11ac and 300Mbps 802.11n, but it makes up for its relative slowness with usability. The mobile control app is simple, but with surprising depth, like the ability to schedule kids’ internet access or cut them off entirely, as well as the capacity to prioritise certain devices on the network. It’s designed to be as accessible as possible, a device that anyone can set up and use, not just tech guys. [ NT ] Telstra TV 2 $192 | www.telstra.com.au Streaming services have disrupted…

[ IOS, ANDROID ] STRAVA www.strava.com | Free Part social network, part leaderboard, part motivation machine. Strava syncs with a huge range of fitness watches, logging your walking, running, swimming, cycling and hiking prowess (and much more) with a superb array of metrics. Stick some photos of your adventures on there, and share with social media. It soon becomes addictive, and truly encourages you to try harder to reach your fitness goals. [ PT ] [ IOS, ANDROID ] RELIVE www.relive.cc | Free If you’re already enjoying the wonders of Strava, then this plug-in allows you to see your routes played out from above with a great satellite-image-sourced map. It’s a bit like if Strava and Google Maps had a baby. Of course, the app tracks all your stats, including…

1 SCREENS LCD screens have to be powered themselves, but need a backlight too. The result is that they draw a lot of power, especially at brighter settings. OLED screens (used on iPhone X and Apple Watch) don’t require a backlight, so are kinder on batteries. 2 MOBILE INTERNET Streaming data at high speeds between your phone and the nearest tower requires a lot of energy. More modern versions are more efficient, but are still major battery killers. 3 INTENSIVE APPLICATIONS Processors are a bit like car engines, in that they use more fuel the harder you push them. Any task that requires a lot of processing power over a long time — such as converting a video, or the way a game is constantly using a graphics chip —…

THIS OPTION, WHICH you’ll find at the top of the ‘Settings > Battery’ page, is an easy way to increase your iPhone’s battery life. Turn it on and it immediately lowers the brightness of the screen, turns off apps’ ability to refresh data in the background, stops the phone listening for “Hey Siri” all the time if you have that turned on, and limits swish animations. Add all these up and it will result in hours of extra battery life. When it’s turned on, the battery status icon is yellow. It automatically turns off when the battery hits 80% full during charging. You can make it really easy to turn on Low Power Mode by adding an item to Control Centre. Go to ‘Settings > Control Centre > Customise Controls’,…

Apple Smart Battery Case $165 | apple.com/au Apple’s own battery case works great with iPhone 6/6S/7 and (unofficially) 8. The lumpy back is weird, but it keeps the phone edges easy to grip, and it’s pretty good for protection. (There aren’t any Apple-certified battery cases for the iPhone X yet.) Native Union Jump Cable $69.95 | nativeunion.com A compact charging cable and battery pack in one neat, portable piece. It has USB-A and Lightning plugs built in; you charge the battery over USB, and plug in your iPhone for an energy boost! Mophie Powerstation USB-C XXL $219.95 | mophie.com It’s not cheap, but this 19,500mAh battery can output power at 30W. Not only can it charge your iPhone and iPad, it carries enough power for a full charge of a…

BEFORE, WHEN YOU sought to free up space on your iDevice by removing those apps you barely use, there used to be one option: complete deletion. Since iOS 11, however, an alternative method called ‘offloading’ was introduced. Now, instead of permanently ridding an app and all of its data and documents, offloading retains the latter. You can reinstall an offloaded app once you need it and continue enjoying the information you’d once saved in it. Here, we look at two ways of doing this. The first is automatic. Select this and Apple decides when it’s time to offload an app, usually by figuring out how long it’s been since you last used it. The second is manual and, in many ways, preferable because it puts you in greater control. It…

UP UNTIL QUITE recently, home automation was a hardcore process, typically undertaken only by professionals and the most enthusiastic of high-tech home makers. To set up home automation, one had to figure out a host of different protocols and systems like X10 and Zigbee, understand software that was more designed for engineers than consumers, and painstaking create scripts to control the automated devices. A few years ago, however, a new range of devices appeared that made it easier. Things like Belkin’s Wemo and Philips’ Hue allowed relatively straightforward mobile control of devices, although their domains were often limited and you’d end up running multiple apps to control devices from different manufacturers. But in just the last year, things have got even better. Virtual personal assistants like Google Home and the…

THERE ARE MANY reasons why you might reject a photo — the exposure being off and unrecoverable for one. Perhaps the background of your shot isn’t complementary to the subject. Maybe you’ve missed the moment altogether. But ditching pictures because they’re not sharp enough is probably the most common reason for trashing a picture. While factors such as lens quality and the amount of digital processing applied to an image make a difference to sharpness, there are basically two things that you can do to get sharper photos out of your camera. The first is to use a shutter speed fast enough to freeze any movement — whether that’s subject movement or unintentional movement of the camera during the exposure. The second (pretty important, this) is to make sure the…