Quick ways to extend your phone’s battery life

Smartphones are basically small computers. And, like any computer, they use a lot of power. Also like any computer, they’re useless if they don’t have a charge. So a part of most people’s routine these days is periodically …

5 ways to be a more conscious consumer in 2024

There are times (like now) when hope gets hard. When it feels that our individual actions—ethical and consistent as they may be—are not enough to turn our world in the right direction. This is understandable. Certainly we’ve got …

How to take .5 selfies, the wide-angle photos getting all the focus from Gen Z

If you have young people around for the holidays, chances are you’ll be taking some .5 selfies. Some what? you might wonder. Well, .5 selfies are the photo trend at the forefront of social media today, obsessively popular …

Cool stuff you didn’t know your phone can do

Last week we shared some tips on how to get more out of your smartphone. Here are some additional tips and features to get the most out of your phone. Android features — prefaced by the proviso that …

Cool phone features not everyone knows about

With every update to the Android and iOS operating systems, there come waves of new features, shortcuts, apps and settings. Many of them you know about and use to make your phone work better for you. But many …

How to prevent apps from accessing your personal data

Smartphone apps can collect a whole lot of data about you:  Your name and email address, location history, personal contacts, photos and videos, purchases, health and fitness data, financial information, browsing and search history, your IP address and …

New life for old devices: 5 ways you can repurpose your outdated gadgets

We all do it. When we get a new device, we toss the old one in a drawer, there to languish till doomsday. Which, alarmingly, seems to grow closer all the time. And which is why we recently …

How to charge your phone faster

You’re about to go out the door for the day (or the night) and, oh snap, your phone battery is in the red. If you have just a few minutes, you won’t be able to reach 100%, of …

4 of the best parental controls for your child’s phone

When a child gets a phone, it changes their world. It opens a door to a universe of sights, sounds, voices, videos, friends and fiends. And then…the child steps through. Where will they go? Parents don’t know. They …

5 ways to stay cool without air conditioning

As the climate warms and heat waves bake the planet, a lot of people resort to the immediate and obvious answer: they switch on the air conditioner. But while AC is a solution in the here and now, …