Notably, operating at a low voltage is good for a battery’s lifespan, increasing the number of available charging cycles before you’ll start to see a significant reduction in capacity. Roughly speaking, every 0.1V decrease in cell voltage doubles the cycle life, according to Battery University. Therefore, charging up your phone in that 30% to 80%…
Partial charging is a healthy habit
One particularly persistent battery myth is that you need to occasionally fully discharge and recharge to erase “battery memory.” This couldn’t be more wrong for lithium-ion batteries. It’s a leftover myth from lead-acid cells, and it’s pretty undesirable to charge your modern smartphone in this way. Partial charging is just fine for lithium-ion batteries and…
HOW THE INTERNET CHANGED VISUAL CULTURE
The punctuation in the title of Omar Kholeif’s new book is symbolic in more ways than one. The underscore in Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs goes beyond a simple riff on the language of computers. “We are discussing the mass medium of our time. It has changed everything,”…
Without us ‘there is no Google’: EU telcos ramp up pressure on Big Tech to pay for the internet
Tensions between European telecommunications firms and U.S. Big Tech companies have crested, as telecom bosses mount pressure on regulators to make digital giants fork up some of the cost of building the backbone of the internet. European telcos argue that large internet firms, mainly American, have built their businesses on the back of the multi-billion…
WHY FI? People are just realizing their WiFi routers are at the wrong height – how high to put it for best internet speeds
Often electrical outlets are placed near the floor, which means it can be tempting to put your router low down too. But that’s a terrible idea: you’ll want to get the router nice and high in the room. This means you’ll have the best chance of spreading strong signals far and wide across your room…
Google has started rolling out its AI chatbot Bard, but it is only available to certain users and they have to be over the age of 18.
Unlike its viral rival ChatGPT, it can access up-to-date information from the internet and has a “Google it” button which accesses search. It also namechecks its sources for facts, such as Wikipedia. But Google warned Bard would have “limitations” and said it might share misinformation and display bias. This is because it “learns” from real-world…
How do chatbots work?
AI chatbots are programmed to answer questions online using natural, human-like language. They can write anything from speeches and marketing copy to computer code and student essays. When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, it had more than one million users within a week, said OpenAI, the firm behind it. Microsoft has invested billions of dollars…
iPhone 15 Pro leak suggests it could make a controversial button change
A new iPhone 15 Pro leak suggests the incoming smartphone could jettison a design feature that’s been ever-present on iPhones: the mute switch. As spotted by Mac Rumors(opens in new tab), the leaker ShrimpApplePro has posted a video that was leaked on China’s equivalent of TikTok, which shows some new CAD (Computer-Aided Design) images of…
Removing the mute switch on the new iPhone 15 Pro series might be seen as a retrograde design step
But there could also be a method to Apple’s apparent meddling. An additional button on the side of the iPhone 15 Pro series could open the door to some software customization that could see it become a little more versatile. If the mute function was simply toggled on or off in software instead, that button…
MICROSOFT WILL MAKE IT EASIER TO SET DEFAULT APPS IN WINDOWS 11
In a blog post published Friday, Microsoft affirmed that they are working to enhance the Windows PC experience. The company announced a feature that will supposedly let Windows 11 users be more in control of default apps. And later this year, Microsoft will introduce a new deep link uniform resource identifier (URI) to make things…