There are lots of myths about expertise on the market. Some are comparatively minor, just like the widespread notion you could save your moist telephone utilizing rice, whereas others verge on the paranoid, like the speculation that 5G towers could make you sick.
These concepts have turn out to be extensively held beliefs, tales we have carried for years or extra, spreading them far and extensive, as mankind used to do round campfires. Solely now we’ve Reddit and AI abstracts on search engines like google and yahoo.
We’re right here to let you know: There are a variety of “info” you should not simply settle for about tech simply since you heard it “someplace.” Overview our record beneath, after which unfold the reality to your pals, household, and social following.
(Credit score: René Ramos)
1. Privateness/Incognito Mode Is Completely Personal
Do you are feeling a little bit safer from spying if you put your internet browser of selection into privateness or incognito mode? It helps, however you are still removed from 100% privateness and anonymity.
The mode erases cookies and monitoring information after you shut a window. Nevertheless it doesn’t cease web sites, your boss, your faculty, and even your ISP from realizing the place you’re going.
For instance, your browser has a novel fingerprint that has nothing to do with recordsdata or data (corresponding to cookies) positioned by the location. The fingerprint is way extra revealing about your system than simply the cookies in your browser. Websites can and do use that. Even should you use a VPN in incognito mode, you may’t masks your self solely.
As for the workplace or faculty, the routers used there have logs exhibiting the place all of the visitors goes, too. There are not any secrets and techniques.
The very best answer is to modify to a security-focused browser like Courageous or use the Tor Browser, which bounces your connections round as you surf. (Sadly, each can decelerate your web expertise.) Courageous, Tor, and others like Dolphin on cellular gadgets supply an anti-fingerprint or anti-detect characteristic that injects false data into your fingerprint to obfuscate who you’re.
For extra suggestions, learn How you can Fully Disappear From the Web.
2. You Are Small Potatoes and Not a Goal for Cybercrime
Why would anybody attempt to hack you should you’ve received nothing to cover? Maintain on: All of us have one thing to cover. Particularly, personal private info (PPI)—the type of information utilized in identification theft. Having it stolen actually can break your life.
In the event you do any type of work on authorities web sites, your Social Safety quantity could also be used or saved there. Your bank card quantity is tied to each on-line buying spree. That type of personal information goes public on a regular basis resulting from frequent, large information breaches. Chances are you’ll certainly be small potatoes, however that does not imply your PPI gained’t be discovered, bought, and resold to unhealthy actors. And most of the instruments doing this are automated: They’ll scrape for no matter they’ll use and promote it, hitting as many targets as potential.
One factor you are able to do to assist your self is to ensure you have a unique password for every website and repair you utilize on-line. Sure, it’s a large ache to recollect all of them (which is why we suggest utilizing a password supervisor), but when your password is present in one breach, then the unhealthy guys might have entry to each account for which you utilize that very same password. Join some ID theft safety and breach-monitoring providers—they’re going to let you know whether or not your PPI is compromised.
For extra, learn What to Do When You have Been Hacked.
(Credit score: René Ramos)
3. Apple’s Macs and iPhones Cannot Get Malware
The evil individuals who write viruses wish to infect as many individuals as potential. That’s one cause Home windows methods and Android gadgets are the same old targets; there are only a ton extra of them.
However merely since you don’t hear lots about macOS and iOS assaults doesn’t imply they don’t occur. Whereas the walled-garden side of Apple’s merchandise makes it harder for unhealthy actors to load your gadgets with malware, generally even Apple leaves safety holes in its merchandise’ defenses. For instance, the OMobileFrameBuffer downside of July 2021 for cellular gadgets and this 12 months’s zero-day vulnerability on all Apple platforms. When not patched with an replace, this stuff turn out to be simple to take advantage of. Hold your gadgets updated to keep away from being a goal.
You’re way more more likely to be contaminated when you have a jailbroken iPhone or iPad. However should you’ve jailbroken your system, you’re in all probability tech-savvy sufficient to know the dangers that go together with utilizing apps and software program that haven’t been vetted.
4. Synthetic Intelligence Is Sentient
AI, as we all know it right this moment, is many issues: an unbelievable achievement, even at this early stage; filled with downright embarrassing biases; in a position to hallucinate all types of untamed, factually inaccurate stuff. However AI has not achieved human intelligence. It isn’t self-aware. It doesn’t have emotions.
Google itself has issued an inventory of AI myths. The tech large says that AIs “stay slender and brittle, and lack true company or creativity.” Chances are you’ll recall that in 2022, the corporate fired an engineer who publicly claimed that the LaMDA (Language Mannequin for Dialogue Functions) chatbot system—upon which the unique Bard AI (now Gemini) was constructed—was alive.
What Google is saying is that AI didn’t determine to jot down a narrative or compose a music—you probably did that. Generative AI corresponding to ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Grok, and so on., are incredible mimics. The AIs merely use patterns to make new patterns. They’re fed an infinite quantity of knowledge—GPT-4 supposedly had 1 trillion parameters to construct on.
The software will then vomit again one thing that mashes all that data collectively. If you are gifted sufficient to jot down a extremely particular immediate describing what you need, the outcomes could also be past your expectations, making the AI look miraculous.
That stated, might we sometime attain the “AI Singularity,” the place machines obtain super-human-level intelligence, aka “machine consciousness?” Specialists say it might occur; some count on it as quickly because the 12 months 2045.
(Credit score: D3Damon/Getty Pictures)
5. Alexa Is Recording All the things
An Amazon Echo and related gadgets, such because the Google Dwelling and Apple HomePod, are certainly at all times passively listening—as a result of if not, the gadgets wouldn’t hear the “wake phrase,” which is usually “Alexa” on an Echo system. The wake phrase tells the system to actively hear and assist you to with a question.
(You may push a button on prime of any Alexa to show off the microphone till you need it on. You can too push the microphone button on prime to begin your question. However that is not what sensible audio system had been designed to do.)
The gadgets file solely what you say after you say the wake phrase. They don’t file all the things, except you activate one thing like Alexa Guard, a characteristic ostensibly for listening for suspicious noises, like breaking glass, when you’re away.
If even that a lot listening in is an excessive amount of for you, go into the Alexa cellular app to Extra > Settings > Alexa Privateness > Overview Voice Historical past to delete one or all queries, even ones from sure date ranges. You can too do it from the Amazon.com web site or say “Alexa, delete all the things I stated right this moment” (when you allow that perform within the app). Better of all, you may set Alexa by no means to avoid wasting your recorded voice—and even inform it by no means to ship enchancment information to Amazon.
For particulars, learn How you can Overview and Delete Your Alexa Historical past. This would possibly all change if we ever get the total launch of Alexa+ with actual AI answering. We will see.
(Credit score: René Ramos)
6. Telephones Take Photos as Effectively as Full-Body Cameras
The very best digital camera is the one you may have with you, after all, and the digital camera we at all times have available is our telephone. You may have a look at the superb specs of a contemporary telephone digital camera—the Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely helps 200 megapixels—and really feel superb concerning the photographs you’re taking. Simply don’t child your self you could’t do higher with a devoted interchangeable lens digital camera.
The “extra megapixels means a greater image” fable is one we attempt to dispel usually (it is the sensor measurement contained in the digital camera that issues extra). Additionally prevalent is the assumption that every one the revolutionary tech inside a telephone digital camera makes it simply nearly as good as a devoted digital camera. That tech is known as computational pictures, wherein imaging tech enhances or extends your digital pictures capabilities. Taking pictures a 360-degree view of the panorama or getting the shallow depth of area bokeh impact and not using a massive, fancy digital camera are good examples of what computational pictures can do.
However give it some thought: Have you ever ever seen knowledgeable photographer use a telephone at a marriage, on the sidelines of the massive recreation, or at a mannequin’s photoshoot? Not going.
After all, refined tools requires refined abilities. It’s a must to find out about publicity, shutter pace, aperture, and ISO settings. And the lens choice on a telephone is, properly, restricted. If you have not mastered a high-end digital camera, utilizing a telephone digital camera would possibly certainly imply higher footage—from you, not less than.
For suggestions, learn 10 Simple Ideas and Methods for Higher Smartphone Photographs.
7. Batteries Develop a ‘Reminiscence’
Within the olden days, when gadgets had been powered by nickel-cadmium (NiCad) batteries, they might certainly develop a reminiscence that by no means allow them to cost previous a sure threshold. In the event you charged it to 50% too many occasions, then it will solely go that top sooner or later. However discharging the battery fully, all the way down to 0%, acted as a form of reminiscence reset. That’s the place the entire “I have to discharge my battery all the best way to zero” perception (see beneath) got here from.
That is not the case with the trendy lithium-ion battery. The issue with lithium-ion batteries is capability and degradation. In the identical quantity of charging time, a brand new telephone would possibly hit 100% when an older telephone can handle solely 80%. Some name it “outdated man syndrome.” Youthful batteries are hungrier for energy, very like youngsters at buffets.
It doesn’t matter what, the extra cost cycles you set a battery via, the much less capability it retains in the long term. So-called “quick charging” on telephones makes the degradation occur even sooner, primarily as a result of it may possibly generate extra warmth (although trendy telephones are very sensible about charging and have a lot better air flow). However finally, you may be fantastic should you stick with the same old in a single day charging. It should cease as soon as it hits 80 or 100%, relying in your settings below Battery Well being.
(Credit score: René Ramos)
8. You Ought to Cost a Cellphone Solely From 0%
Nope. Operating a contemporary lithium-ion battery all the way down to 0% on a regular basis is dangerous. It wears them out sooner. What you wish to do is a partial discharge.
That is one other capability challenge. With the within elements of a battery (just like the one in your smartphone) in a relentless state of decay, the supplies merely maintain much less energy over time. It’s why your outdated telephone lasts for fewer and fewer hours, in contrast with the total day or extra you get from a brand-new system.
We have all been within the scenario the place your telephone says it is at 10 or 20% and also you imagine you may have time left for a name, however then it promptly dies. Some individuals nonetheless imagine that sometimes working a telephone all the way down to zero helps as a recalibration for that.
However the issue is that trendy telephones seldom get to the tip of battery life. They’ll do an auto-shutdown with a trickle of cost left inside. In the event you suspect that, let the telephone sit for a couple of hours earlier than you plug it in.
The very best technique: By no means let the battery go beneath 20%, then cost it as much as round 80%, which occurs rapidly on a quick cost. Maintaining it between 30 to 80% on a regular basis is an efficient method to improve a battery’s lifespan.
For more information, learn How you can Save Battery Life on Your iPhone.
9. Charging Telephones In a single day Overloads the Battery
Your telephone is wise sufficient to have additional safety, so when the lithium-ion battery hits 100%, it stops charging. It should by no means overload. These tales of somebody’s telephone catching fireplace stem from telephones with defective batteries.
But in addition, don’t put the telephone below your pillow—it may possibly get scorching, even burn you, after which burn itself out. A telephone must dissipate some warmth, one other factor that hurts batteries. You wouldn’t sleep in your laptop computer, so don’t sleep in your smartphone.
It’s potential that when an older telephone is plugged in to cost all night time lengthy, it’s going to use some juice, drop to 99%, and cost up once more to 100%. That’s not nice, however don’t lose any sleep over it. In the event you ought to get up through the night time, unplug it or take it off the wi-fi charger. It gained’t lose a lot earlier than morning.
For extra, learn Charging Your Cellphone In a single day: Battery Myths Debunked.
10. You Cannot Recycle Electrical Car Batteries
Electrical autos (EVs) accounted for less than 7.9% of automobiles on the highway in early 2025, in line with Edmunds. Gross sales will solely go up as governments push individuals towards shopping for them. In California, for instance, the mandate is that “by 2035, all new automobiles and passenger vehicles bought in California be zero-emission autos.”
Federal tax credit had been pushing individuals to EVs for some time, however the present administration is not into it. The $7,500 credit score, which was imagined to go to 2032, now ends on September 30 this 12 months, which is inflicting a probably record-breaking spike in EV gross sales. For now.
One challenge that could be preserving individuals away from EVs is the imagine you could’t recycle the batteries utilized in EVs. That is not true in any respect. They are often recycled and rehabbed. Time and again. Some will not even have any efficiency loss. Additionally, the minerals inside are far too costly and demanding to simply let be buried in a landfill.
For extra, learn Chasing Black Mass: Contained in the Electrical Car Battery Recycling Course of.
(Credit score: René Ramos)
11. 5G Towers Can Make You Sick
Sure individuals have lengthy been nervous that mobile indicators, Wi-Fi, and even radio are making them sick. 5G is just the latest over-the-air “villain.” In our conspiracy-rife occasions, the place outright lies can masquerade as the reality, 5G will get a variety of consideration.
Our pals at Mashable have lined a few of the conspiracy theories, like that 5G being “turned up” will trigger people who find themselves vaccinated for Covid to spontaneously combust. (This was imagined to “occur” on Jan. 5, 2022. It didn’t.) Moreover, there’s no scientifically validated connection between 5G and Covid.
What all of it boils all the way down to is that 5G is, as our former mobile-tech knowledgeable Sascha Segan has stated, “based mostly on radio frequencies which have been used for many years.” It’s like anticipating to get a headache from UHF. The World Well being Group says the low-level electromagnetic fields from towers, “in the event that they exist in any respect,” are a minor risk in contrast with the on a regular basis dangers of using in a automotive.
For extra, learn Is 5G Protected?
12. Electromagnetic Fields Are Making You Radioactive
Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are in all places as a result of nearly all the things with energy emits such a area, from the solar all the way down to your AirPods. We’re not speaking concerning the equal of sitting subsequent to a mound of uranium. Because the World Well being Group says, “Everyone seems to be uncovered to a posh mixture of weak electrical and magnetic fields, each at residence and at work.”
A whole world of merchandise exists to guard you from this invisible radiation. From beanies on your head (the trendy model of a tin-foil hat), to “anti-EMF” stickers you may put in your telephone, to a router cowl that in all probability does extra to stop mud than radiation, most are utter grifts. Some so-called negative-ion jewellery claiming to “block 5G” was discovered to truly emit ionizing radiation that was really harmful.
Some merchandise would possibly do what they declare, however when all EMF is blocked, so is the sign for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and so forth. Chances are you’ll as properly put your gadgets in a Faraday cage and make them inert. In the event you’re that afraid of EMFs, simply cease utilizing your telephone and the web altogether.
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The principle impact of a low- to mid-frequency EMF on organic methods is to trigger them to warmth up, however most individuals by no means encounter ranges excessive sufficient for that to occur. (Excessive-frequency EMFs are the ionizing sort that do extra harm. Examples embody X-rays, CTs, and even UV rays from the solar and tanning beds.)
WHO has had an EMF Mission in place since 1996, assessing what frequencies as much as 300GHz can do. Much more analysis stays to be performed. Some reviews name non-ionizing EMFs a potential carcinogen; others don’t. However even with the huge proliferation of gadgets over the past 20 years, most cancers dying charges have declined for the reason that early Nineties.
13. Costly HDMI Cables Present a Higher Image
There’s one thing to be stated for magnificence and sturdiness in a cable. And generally, you get that with an costly HDMI cable. How costly? We as soon as discovered a 20-meter cable on-line priced at $10,500! No cable that prices as a lot as a automotive goes to be definitely worth the cash.
Finally, a digital sign is a digital sign. And a $10 cable versus a $1,000 cable of the identical size (not less than below 75 toes lengthy) and specs isn’t going to alter the image in your TV.
You need to be conscious of the completely different HDMI requirements. The 1.4 specification dates again a decade and handles all the things as much as 4K video. Each HDMI cable helps it. In the event you’re one of many few with an 8K TV setup, get a cable supporting HDMI 2.1, which can be supported by the overwhelming majority of TV fashions from the final couple of years, whether or not 8K or not. Extra necessary is the pace ranking (Commonplace, Excessive Velocity, Premium Excessive Velocity, or Extremely Excessive Velocity). The latter three can deal with 4K at 24 frames per second, however you want Premium or Extremely to get the max body charge for gaming.
Cable size generally is a issue when your elements are far aside. Over distance, cables should be higher shielded to keep away from interference. So that you would possibly certainly pay extra for an extended HDMI cable—however at a sure level, you’d be higher off utilizing Ethernet.
For extra on the subject, learn What You Have to Know About HDMI Cables.
(Credit score: Brian Westover/PCMag)
14. Starlink Will Change Everybody’s ISP
Lots of people have positioned hope in Starlink, the satellite-based web supplier from Elon Musk-owned SpaceX. For individuals dwelling in disenfranchised areas, a lot of them rural, who’ve subsequent to no decisions in relation to broadband entry, Starlink is transformative. Clients who’ve Starlink give it excessive marks.
However the chance that it may possibly or ought to change your cable or fiber connection, regardless of how unhealthy the customer support or connection, is slim. There is a cause it scores notably properly in rural areas, the place Starlink is definitely the only option among the many satellite-based ISPs.
One of many points is congestion. It was an enormous deal for the service in 2022 when new customers flooded in. The service hit 2 million customers in July, by way of solely 8,000 operational low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites. It will not hit 12,000 till 2026; but that was initially the quantity cited to assist 1 / 4 of that many subscribers. Starlink is joyful to use a “congestion cost” to new prospects in areas the place the satellites are strained.
The numbers point out that Starlink might have overcome some congestion points, however it nonetheless has an issue with pace. It does not even measure as much as the FCC’s paltry definition of broadband but. Musk himself as soon as stated the service can be finest for locations with low to medium inhabitants density. In cities, he stated, 5G shall be higher.
Starlink finally isn’t meant to interchange different connections. It’s a complement. And not a really inexpensive one. It is priced from $80 to $165 monthly, relying in your wants, plus the price of tools. It is no answer to the digital divide.
(Credit score: René Ramos)
15. Airport X-Rays Erase Laptop computer and Smartphone Reminiscence
The airport safety conveyor belt scanners the TSA makes use of to examine your belongings gained’t erase your information. The parable is a holdover from the times of movie cameras: The electromagnetic radiation of an X-ray might certainly do some harm to undeveloped negatives, notably to high-speed movie that’s photosensitive. However the photon scanners in use right this moment gained’t damage a tough drive (although an enormous magnet might, so don’t take your laptop computer into an MRI machine).
TSA scanners additionally gained’t do something to a solid-state drive, which is the type of storage you may have in a smartphone. Not as a result of they couldn’t, in concept, in the event that they had been highly effective sufficient. However TSA machines simply aren’t that intense.
So why does the TSA make you’re taking out your electronics and put them in a separate bin? As a result of the gadgets are so dense that brokers can’t see via them on a display screen, probably obscuring the view of your 4 ounces of forbidden shampoo.
Remember that the radiation publicity you and your electronics get from the solar and past at 36,000 toes on a cross-country aircraft journey is concerning the equal of two chest X-rays. Nonetheless, it is not likely that harmful, except you’re a crew member.
16. PCs Ought to Be Shut Down Each Evening
This one has been debated for years. The explanations to close down computer systems in a single day are quite a few—they’ll use much less power, transferring components corresponding to followers and drives gained’t spin up, you gained’t obtain in a single day notifications and alarms, and a every day restart helps the OS.
However there are additionally causes to go away it on all night time—distant entry is feasible, the PC can run background updates, you don’t wish to watch for a restart, and a chilly reboot causes an influence surge that appears pointless. Each factions—leave-it-on-all-nighters and shut-it-downers—declare their observe results in an extended lifespan for a PC.
Panda Safety surveyed individuals on this subject and located that, for work computer systems not less than, 37% of respondents shut down nightly. In accordance with Panda, you need to shut down at night time provided that your PC has delicate info on it and the community isn’t secured, or if you don’t must run backups or remotely entry the drive. In any other case, depart it on, and restart it sometimes to clear the RAM and carry out OS set up updates.
Really helpful by Our Editors
17. Apple Slows Down Outdated Gadgets to Get You to Purchase New Ones
When a brand new iPhone comes out, your present, older telephone in some way appears much less responsive. As if, maybe, one thing has occurred to it that may drive you to make a brand new buy.
At one level, Apple really admitted to this. In 2017, the Batterygate fiasco revealed that Apple did throttle CPUs on older iPhones to assist deal with the getting older of iPhone batteries. Individuals didn’t like that, states sued, and Apple was fined $113 million. Apple’s excuse is that it did this for our personal good—to stop crashes, to not improve gross sales. (I’m certain the latter was only a coincidental aspect impact.) All the opposite telephone makers additionally say they don’t cut back telephone efficiency with age. At the very least, not on function.
So is your telephone actually getting slower? The reply in all probability has extra to do with the updates to your cellular OS and all of the apps put in. All the things is optimized to run on the most recent {hardware}. In the event you’re planning to run iOS 26 on the six-year-old iPhone 11, which got here with iOS 13 in 2019, even working newer up to date apps with it, the chips inside aren’t what that software program was designed for.
(Credit score: René Ramos)
18. Chopping the Twine Will Save You Cash
This might nonetheless be true should you’re prepared to accept utilizing simply a few streaming providers and maybe an HD antenna to get primary networks over the air. However all of the media firms have created walled gardens of content material and made a lot of it unique (particularly if it’s new). If you wish to see all of it, it’s going to price you.
In the event you crave NBC content material (say, The Workplace reruns), you want Peacock. If you’d like CBS exhibits (and Star Trek), you want Paramount+. Wish to watch Sport of Thrones or The Pitt? You require HBO Max. ABC has caught with Hulu as a result of Disney owns the streamer—however Disney launched Disney+ for all the things else. Hulu and Disney+ make you pay for each, regardless that subsequent 12 months the Hulu app shall be discontinued solely.
In the meantime, Netflix started a crackdown on password sharing on sensible TVs and did not endure any considerable subscriber loss. Many different streamers adopted swimsuit, like HBO Max, YouTube Premium, and Disney+, charging additional so that you can add a family to your account. So thanks for nothing, Netflix.
Streamers are nearly all now grubbing for extra cash in a means that feels acquainted: Including promoting. Often, meaning paying rather less for you, however not less than one (Prime Video) is forcing promoting, anticipating customers to pay extra to keep away from commercials.
The price of having even the minor tier on all these providers is egregious—round $1,000 a 12 months, in line with a CNET survey—and all of the providers are addicted to cost hikes. CNET additionally discovered that, on common, persons are paying $200 a 12 months for subscriptions they do not even use. Even whether it is cheaper than pay TV or a live-TV streaming service, you continue to gained’t have entry to all the things. Regardless of which means you go. Who has the time (or the cash) for that?
(Credit score: René Ramos)
19. The Cloud Is within the Sky
Apparently, some individuals suppose references to “the cloud” or “cloud computing” point out that information is being saved within the precise sky. And that stormy climate can intervene with it.
No. “The cloud” is a metaphor for the web, taken from the cloud picture utilized in flowcharts again within the day to symbolize the web’s amorphous nature. Extra particularly, cloud computing refers to large information farms run by the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, not just for on-line storage and file sharing but additionally for entry to and growth of merchandise. Gmail, Netflix, OneDrive, and Amazon AWS are all completely different types of cloud computing.
You may learn all about it in What’s Cloud Computing?
20. Rice Saves Moist Telephones
Telephones get moist. It occurs. Immediately, most are rated to be waterproof, however liquids and electronics seldom greet one another as pals. However there’s at all times been an answer at hand in lots of a kitchen: raw rice. Its absorbent properties can save a telephone after it will get a “liquid detection alert,” proper?
Anecdotally, certain, it has occurred. However do not do it. Apple made it official in its liquid detection alert assist doc not too long ago. It now reads, “Don’t put your iPhone in a bag of rice. Doing so might enable small particles of rice to wreck your iPhone.” Particles within the Lightning or USB-C charging port are a a lot greater deal than water in all probability is. It will probably additionally scratch the display screen.
The rumor that rice is the desiccant that may save your moist handsets goes again to the identical summer season the iPhone was first introduced, in line with The Verge. It discovered a MacRumors discussion board the place a member posted utilizing rice to attempt to revive a pre-iPhone telephone—and it did not work for them. The usage of rice goes even additional again, to when it was used for preserving digital camera tools dry.
A greater choice, beneficial by the tech insurance coverage service Asurion, is to position a moist telephone right into a sealable plastic bag with silica gel packs—the type you get in all types of shipments. (Acquire a couple of for simply this emergency, or purchase some.) It could be safer than storing your valuable pocket laptop in precise meals. You possibly can additionally strive a type of apps which are imagined to play a noise or trigger a vibration that may expel any juices within the charging port and audio system. On an iPhone, you may arrange a shortcut to do the identical factor.
21. Closing Cell Apps Saves Cellphone Battery and Improves Efficiency
This one is for my members of the family, who not too long ago realized easy methods to swipe as much as shut apps on their telephones and now do it continuously, considering it saves their battery.
It does not matter what cellular OS you utilize, Android or iOS (or iPadOS)—they’re all fairly nice at dealing with background apps. Whereas it is true that some apps use much more battery than others (you may see this, for instance, in iOS below Settings > Battery). That is normally a perform of how a lot time you spend in an app. Learn a variety of Kindle books? Cannot cease watching TikToks? Doom scroll all day on X? No matter you utilize most shall be on the prime of the record.
Shutting down the app with a swipe (on iOS, swipe up from the underside of the display screen to see all apps, then swipe up on an app to “shut” it) does not play a lot into it. Sure, background apps that refresh information even if you’re not trying on the display screen can use some juice. Nevertheless it’s nothing in contrast with, say, how brilliant your display screen is. And arguably, it takes extra power so that you can restart the app.
The very best answer: Activate the Battery Saver mode (Android) or Low Energy Mode (iOS). It should flip off a variety of the background refreshing that does deplete the battery. Or go into the Background App Refresh choices (on Android, it is referred to as Information Saver) and switch them off on any app that does not want to speak to the web continuously.
Shutting down all of your apps manually additionally does not make your telephone work any sooner by liberating up RAM. Immediately’s iOS and Android know what they’re doing. They’re going to freeze an inactive app within the background, so it is not likely doing something, together with taking over any assets. In truth, force-closing a bunch of apps simply means you are going to tax the battery and CPU to do a full reload if you want the app subsequent.
Worse: getting (or shopping for) any app that claims it is a “RAM cleaner.” They have been referred to as “digital snake oil” for a cause.
In the event you actually wish to clear up your reminiscence, do it the old style means: restart the telephone.
22. You Cannot Stream Netflix Whereas Touring
In the event you’re going overseas however have hours left in your viewing of a streaming TV present like Dept. Q or films to re-watch, like Ok-Pop Demon Hunters, you in all probability imagine you are out of luck. In any case, Netflix has cracked down not simply on password sharing but additionally on permitting individuals to view its service in different nations. It does so by not solely realizing your account is tied to the US, but additionally by blocking individuals who use a VPN service.
A VPN is a typical means of spoofing a location. It will probably let you look like in a unique nation. For instance, should you’re in Italy, a VPN linked to the fitting server could make it appear to be you are still within the US. This issues as a result of the Netflix choices in a single nation aren’t the identical in each different nation. To have entry in different nations, Netflix expects you to pay…once more. So it blocks VPN customers, even when they’re solely utilizing the VPN for on-line privateness.
However in PCMag testing, we discovered that (murky moral concerns apart) Netflix’s blocks aren’t absolute. We examined a large number of VPN providers and located loads of openings for streaming. Some rely on which nations you are trying to entry. If you cannot unblock Netflix with a VPN, you may nearly at all times do it by way of proxies.
For particulars, learn How you can Unblock Netflix With a VPN. It ought to, in concept, work simply as properly should you encounter a block on different streaming providers.
23. The Tough-to-Entry Darkish Net Is Unlawful and Filled with Contraband
There are three myths in that assertion alone. However first, let’s cowl what the darkish internet actually is. In contrast to the usual “World Broad Net” of websites you’re used to, aka the “clear internet” or “floor internet,” the darkish internet isn’t one thing you may simply bump into.
That stated, the primary fable is that it’s tough to entry. In truth, it’s simpler to entry the darkish internet in some methods than the “deep internet,” that layer of knowledge between the floor internet and the darkish internet. The deep internet shops as a lot as 7.5 petabytes of knowledge that’s not for public consumption—suppose medical information, science reviews, and different paperwork hidden behind paywalls and passwords, and never listed by search engines like google and yahoo. (Compared, the floor internet is just 19 terabytes—394.7 occasions smaller than the deep internet.) The scale of the darkish internet is tougher to pin down because it’s encrypted and decentralized.
It’s not unlawful to entry the darkish internet within the US (issues are completely different in China and Iran). You simply want the fitting software program to get on it, such because the Tor Browser.
Sure, the darkish internet comprises some heinous stuff and is definitely used for some criminality. Any writing concerning the darkish internet comes with an compulsory point out of Silk Highway, the darkish internet market of unlawful stuff that was shuttered in 2013. The darkish internet is a haven for individuals promoting and shopping for personally identifiable info (PII) from information breaches and hacks—it’s actually why you get a lot spam and have to alter passwords on a regular basis.
However heinousness just isn’t all of the darkish internet is about. It’s additionally a haven for communication for activists, whistleblowers, victims—anybody who must be nameless but nonetheless wants to speak. Your privateness on the darkish internet is a given, free from the prying eyes of companies and governments, not like privateness on the floor internet, which is basically on the market.
For extra on easy methods to entry it, learn our full explainer on what the darkish internet is (and isn’t). You also needs to learn concerning the privateness variations between Tor and VPNs.
24. Clearing Cookies Results in Cheaper Flights
(Credit score: Isabel Pavia / Getty Pictures)
There are a lot of individuals, possibly even journey brokers, who swear by this trick: by clearing your browser cookies and cache, you may generally entry decrease costs on journey.
However research, together with one by Shopper Stories referred to as “The Fact About Airline Cookies” have proven that this is not true. The pricing on the journey websites is dynamic, that is for certain, however principally based mostly on flight recognition and different bookings. It is not about seeing your return visitors and making an attempt to benefit from you.
Additionally, some journey websites show older, decrease costs till somebody clicks via they usually get up to date. It would really feel private if you see the value leap upon a revisit, however it’s not about you. It is extra concerning the lag in information refresh time.
About Our Professional
Eric Griffith
Senior Editor, Options
Expertise
I have been writing about computer systems, the web, and expertise professionally since 1992, greater than half of that point with PCMag. I arrived on the finish of the print period of PC Journal as a senior author. I served for a time as managing editor of enterprise protection earlier than settling again into the options crew for the final decade and a half. I write options on all tech matters, plus I deal with a number of particular initiatives, together with the Readers’ Selection and Enterprise Selection surveys and yearly protection of the Finest ISPs and Finest Gaming ISPs, Finest Merchandise of the Yr, and Finest Manufacturers (plus the Finest Manufacturers for Tech Assist, Longevity, and Reliability).
I began in tech publishing proper out of faculty, writing and enhancing tales about {hardware} and growth instruments. I migrated to software program and {hardware} protection for households, and I spent a number of years completely writing concerning the then-burgeoning expertise referred to as Wi-Fi. I used to be on the founding workers of a number of magazines, together with Home windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Entry Web Journal. All of which at the moment are defunct, and it isn’t my fault. I’ve freelanced for publications as various as Sony Fashion, Playboy.com, and Flux. I received my diploma at Ithaca School in, of all issues, tv/radio. However I minored in writing so I might have a future.
In my long-lost free time, I wrote some novels, a few which aren’t simply on my exhausting drive: BETA TEST (“an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic story,” in line with Publishers’ Weekly) and a YA ebook referred to as KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. Go get them on Kindle.
I work from my residence in Ithaca, NY, and did it lengthy earlier than pandemics made it cool.
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