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There’s always something new to spend money on when it comes to tech. Here’s a secret some companies don’t want you to know: You can get a lot without spending a dime.

Take photo storage. Are you using the free space from Apple, Google, and Amazon? Here are the best ways to store photos and videos on your phone.

Speaking of money, I hear from people all the time who want to cut Netflix, Hulu, and other expensive streaming services. Did you know that mobile carriers offer free streaming service subscriptions as part of their plans? Here’s what T-Mobile, Verizon, Spring and AT&T are offering.

Storage and movies aren’t the only things you’ll get for free. Here are freebies you can thank me for later.

1. Photo editing software

Photoshop is generally synonymous with photo editing, but the software subscription is expensive. Here are a few free ways to crop, brighten and otherwise adjust your photos:

• Canva: This user-friendly browser and app-based editing software is ideal for creating presentations, social media graphics, marketing materials, posters, and anything else you can dream up. 
• Pixlr X: This tool runs in your browser; no download is required. It has advanced features like photo filters and drawing options, but it really shines with simple-to-use cropping and resizing tools.
• GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program): This professional-grade photo editor works similarly to Photoshop. Unlike Photoshop, GIMP is free to download.
• Adobe Express: This cloud-based platform from the makers of Photoshop offers a library of stock photos, illustrations, and fonts for your designs. You can also create a project from scratch.

Tap or click here for an in-depth breakdown of the pros and cons of each option.

2. Video editing software

This is one of those things you don’t need until you really need it. Maybe you were tasked with creating a video for a wedding or class reunion, or you finally want to start a YouTube channel.

Most dependable video editing programs cost an arm and a leg. Notice I said most. When it comes to free options, DaVinci Resolve takes the cake.

If you have a Mac or iPhone, you’ll be glad to know Apple iMovie is a surprisingly good video editor. Tap or click to see how to turn your clips and photos into a masterpiece with iMovie.

3. Word processing software

When it comes to productivity software, Microsoft Office is the gold standard. Of course, it’s pricey. I have recommended LibreOffice for years. It’s an open-source software suite that works much like the apps in Microsoft Office. 

It also saves new files in Office formats, so you don’t have to worry about file conversions. Tap or click here for a step-by-step guide to downloading LibreOffice.

Are you already using Google Docs? Tap or click for a simple trick that makes starting a new document a snap.

4. Freeze your credit

Freezing your credit is free. If you ever get prompted to pay, you’re on the wrong site, clicked a shady ad, or spoke to a scammer. 

The trick is knowing the spots to freeze your credit. It’s not just one place. Go here for the steps you need to take. This page is worth bookmarking for the next time you get an alert that your info was exposed in a data breach.

5. Burner email addresses

Do you want a coupon code but not the spammy emails that come with it? Use a burner email address. 

You can use a free disposable email service like 10–Minute Mail. It’s easy to create a temporary email address to ensure your security, so you don’t have to give away your personal and work email addresses.

Use an iPhone? The Hide My Email feature is powerful, easy to use, and requires no additional downloads. Tap or click for a simple way to protect your inbox privacy.

6. Brush up on your college Spanish

Duolingo is a top-rated language-learning app, and for good reason. It’s easy to use, engaging, and surprisingly easy.

Duolingo offers 37 languages, including Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Latin, Korean, Scottish Gaelic, Ukrainian, Italian, and Chinese. Have trouble staying committed? Duolingo offers daily reminders that hold you accountable each day.

7. eBooks for your summer vacation

Digital books can add up, especially if you’re a voracious reader. OpenLibrary.org lets you browse thousands of books to find your next favorite. Sign up, verify your email, and you’re good to go. Start browsing in just a few minutes.

Tap or click here for even more ways to get free eBooks.

Trying to get a side business or freelance career off the ground? I have an eBook you should read to maximize profits: “Guide to Successful Online Freelancing.”

8. Audiobooks for listening on your walks

Prefer to listen to your reading list? Audiobooks make chores like yard work and cooking much more interesting and liven up long walks or road trips.

Here are eight ways to get free audiobooks.

9. Internet speed tests

Free internet speed tests help determine whether you’re genuinely getting your advertised rates. One of the most reliable free speed tests around is Speedtest.net. This site will measure various statistics like the ping time, download speed and upload speed of your internet connection.

Are you a streaming video buff? Try Netflix’s free internet speed test, Fast.com. 

If your internet speed turns out to be lower than expected, there are ways to improve it. Tap or click for tips to boost your Wi-Fi speeds.

10. Low-cost or free internet

The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program provides up to $50 monthly for broadband service. To qualify, you must meet one of five criteria, one of them being an income at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. 

Tap or click for the other ways to qualify for free internet and how to sign up.

11. Shipping materials

Here’s some good news for small business owners who work from home. Actually, this freebie is helpful for anyone who wants to stop spending money on mail. Thanks to the USPS, you can score free envelopes and boxes.

It’s not just one or two, either. A pack of 50 Priority Mail Express packages is available at no cost. You can get medium boxes, shoe boxes and a lot more. 

Here’s a direct link to grab free shipping supplies.

12. Update your passport photo

Don’t wait in a long line to have someone take your picture for your passport. Head to Passport Photo Online and follow a few steps to take the perfect shot. It’s pretty easy, and the site tells you exactly what to do.

RELATED: 5 things you should STOP paying for in 2023

13. Magazines to read on the beach

Have an Amazon Prime account? Then you have free access to a rotating library of popular magazines free for 30 days. Check them out here. The Prime Reading perk is a terrific way to save money you’d otherwise spend on expensive monthly subscriptions. 

Titles include Wired, Popular Science, Reader’s Digest, Taste of Home and more.

14. Weekend project ideas for you and the kids

If you or someone you know loves to sew, check out Mood Sewciety. It includes step-by-step tutorials, sewing patterns, and helpful articles.

Instructables.com has a stellar library of projects for all ages and skill levels for those who are more into crafts and woodworking. There’s something for everyone. Here are some of my favorites:

• Make a 3D-printed lamp.
• Craft a college loft bed.
• Learn astrophotography.
• Build a spaceship-shaped chicken coop.
• Design a custom fighting game controller.

You may also like: 15 more things you didn’t know you can get for free

We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

© Future / Philip Berne
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Samsung must be exasperated. What more can it add to the Galaxy S23 Ultra? While its feature-rich flagship lags Apple’s best iPhones in sales, it’s hard to imagine how Samsung could improve. I bought a Galaxy S23 Ultra. It feels like a device from tomorrow has been transported to my hand, when I use it to its full potential. Unfortunately, today demands my full attention, and it’s hard to imagine asking you to make the leap.

Of course, I mean the leap from iPhone to one of the best Samsung phones. Samsung’s piece of the smartphone pie has mostly grown as other Android makers shrink. If you have one of the best iPhones, you’re less likely to switch.

Samsung fans have a hard time comprehending why iPhone users are so against switching. To die-hard fans and expert users, it’s clear how far ahead a Samsung phone can seem. Samsung enthusiasts can type until they are blue in the fingers, but the phone they describe is a phone for a different moment in time, and that’s the problem.

Here are the biggest selling points of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and the reasons why it is truly a phone that delivers the future of mobile technology, today. Also, why those reasons don’t matter. It’s 2023, not the distant future, and the world may not be ready for the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra is like a desktop computer

I can write a detailed list of every major difference and advantage the Galaxy S23 Ultra has over the iPhone 14 Pro, or vice versa. I own both, and I’ve used them both extensively. The truth is, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is a mini-computer and digital toolbox in your hand. The iPhone 14 Pro is simply a focused and refined smartphone. 

For technorati like me, it’s hard to imagine a future that isn’t shoved forward by highly-capable handheld tech like Samsung’s Galaxy phones. The iPhone is deeply seated in the past. It can barely handle multi-tasking, let alone running multiple apps simultaneously in paired windows. It is only minimally customizable. It simply doesn’t do very much.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra lets you run multiple apps, side-by-side, just like a computer. It lets you tweak your experience, from the themes and colors of the app icons to the very width of the toolbars.

You can fine-tune on a level that granular if you want to. Do you want to? You probably don’t, but if you do, Samsung lets you dive in deep.

I can’t detail all of the specific tweaks, there are too many, and you may already be completely turned off by this. You don’t want to adjust anything, you don’t really care that much. You just want it to work well, last all day, and run every app you’ve heard of. 

Also, it should take nice photos. For that, you don’t need an S23 Ultra. Even Apple’s iPhone 14 has you covered. Speaking of photos…

The Galaxy S23 Ultra has unmatched photo capabilities

The Galaxy S23 Ultra may or may not have the best phone cameras, but it certainly uses more advanced technology than you can find on an iPhone 14 Pro. Whether or not that 200MP sensor creates a better final image, the S23 Ultra gives you more lenses, and more control over your camera, by far. 

Besides the Pro mode found in the Camera app, Samsung also offers an Expert Raw app, essentially a whole different camera controller, that gives you more control over your camera and the file output. It also has an astrophotography mode for shooting stars. It takes the best photos of the moon you’ve ever seen from a smartphone camera, or likely any camera you’ve owned.

How many times will you ever take a photo of the moon? Two? Three? I mean, the moon changes, but not in any surprising way. You’ve seen one moon shot, you’ve seen them all.

If you’re an aspiring photographer, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is the best phone you can buy in most markets (there are some cool phones you can’t buy in the US and elsewhere). Most of us aren’t aspiring to create beautiful photographs, we just want the camera to nail the shot the first time so we don’t miss important moments.

If you’re not too picky about lighting and color accuracy, every good smartphone does about the same job. Some shots look great. Some shots are blurry. The photos look better than last year and much better than you ever expected photos from a phone could look.

Everything else that won’t change your life

I use everything on the Galaxy S23 Ultra. All of it. I use the S Pen for note-taking as well as controlling the phone. I use Bixby to adjust settings. I use DeX instead of a laptop … sometimes. I use it all. 

None of it is necessary. None of it creates a new use case that I can’t live without. All of these Galaxy S23 Ultra features make the phone a pleasure to use, and immensely powerful. None of them have changed my life significantly. 

Can smartphone features change your life? Of course. Having a good camera available all the time, with instant sharing, changed our lives. Having GPS on a phone with free maps and directions changed our lives. Heck, even having Google on a great web browser with ubiquitous internet access makes life significantly easier. 

There is no question that the S Pen is a technological marvel, and very useful in practice. Still. it hasn’t made an impact in my daily life the way that text messaging changed the way I communicate. It hasn’t even changed my smartphone habits the way IP68 water resistance made me feel free to use the phone in more places, like the tub.

Maybe these are the features of tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow, I will only carry my phone and use its Desktop Experience to replace my laptop entirely. Maybe I’ll do everything with Bixby, instead of using my fingers.

Today, I don’t need any of it, and it isn’t making my life much better. I enjoy it, and I find it useful, but it doesn’t have the impact of the most important smartphone advancements, and that is why the Galaxy S23 Ultra doesn’t pull ahead of the iPhone 14 Pro.

The best phone treats users in the best possible way

The Galaxy S23 Ultra offers so much, but it still refuses to treat the user with the utmost respect. The iPhone doesn’t try to sell you anything, not overtly. With Samsung’s phone, and most other phones on a US carrier, I always feel like I’m being pushed to buy in more. 

First of all, the phone came loaded with bloatware. I’m not just talking about the Samsung software. I like some of the Samsung software. Samsung’s Internet’ browser is arguably a better mobile web browser than Chrome. I’ve run them side-to-side, and the Internet is often faster. 

I’m talking about the bloatware apps from my cellular carrier. The “Armor” spam protection that I’ll have to pay for, or the bespoke streaming video clip app. Worst of all are the grotesque games that are heaved upon my app screens. I paid more than $1,000 for this phone, and I still get Candy Crush forced upon me? 

How much do I have to pay for a phone without Candy Crush? $2,000? $1,000,000? Imagine buying a BMW and the dealer has installed a bunch of McDonald’s and 7-Eleven decals inside that you have to remove yourself. I hope the benefit AT&T and Samsung received was worth making my premiere phone feel cheap the first time I used it. 

In other words, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has jumped into the future, but it hasn’t paid enough attention to what I want today, and that’s a dangerous step to miss. I won’t be forced into a technology future I didn’t choose and don’t appreciate.

The phone of tomorrow needs to imagine utopia, not a dystopian sci-fi movie. The Galaxy S23 Ultra gives me a magic wand and bionic vision. It also pokes at me with advertisements, distracts me with games I don’t want to play, and demands my attention for features I don’t need.

My iPhone 14 Pro didn’t feel the same way. It mostly did its job and left me alone, and that’s the phone that most of us prefer today.

Duncan was presented with the Photographer of the Year shield from founder and current chairman of WDCC Alan Dean.

The annual award is given to the person who has gained the most points over four competitions throughout the year.

Duncan’s passion lies in landscape astrophotography and he is a member and team leader of Welshot Photographic Academy.

Duncan Fenwick received the shield from chairman Alan Dean

The award for most improved photographer went to Miles Turnbull, who received the Alan Dean Trophy.

Wildlife, especially birds and macrophotography, is what Miles focuses on and when he is not taking photos he plays solo cornet for the first section brass band Old Hall Brass.

WDCC meets every two weeks on a Monday (excluding bank holidays) between 7.45pm and 9.30pm at Winwick Leisure Centre on Myddleton Lane, Winwick.

Duncan specialises in astrophotography