Long gone, but now back… sort of. :)
There are more New Zealand photos and text to come (see previous New Zealand posts), but the first batches generated some comments and questions like this one from reader Nikos: “Fantastic photos!!! What camera did you use?” Thanks! This was actually my first major trip were I didn’t pack a standard, self-contained,”prosumer” camera. I took…
(Answer requested by Jason Zimmer) Yup, almost surely, especially if you have any voice-enabled assistant or controls installed and enabled. Those services and features are designed to at least minimally listen all the time so that they can hear and can respond whenever you happen to say “Siri/Google/Bixby/Alexa/Cortana/whatever” or whatever trigger phrase your assistant uses….
(Answer requested by Jack Miller) One easy way is to use Android’s built-in Reset network settings function: Open Settings; search for “reset” and select Reset network settings when it’s offered. (You can dig it out of the menus click by click, too, but the location has changed from version to version: In reasonably current Samsung…
(Answer requested by Trevor Noble) Why does it take so long to paint a house compared to a garden shed? 🙂 Laptops are typically much more capacious than phones, and carry far more software and files. EG: My phone (an S10) has 128GB of internal drive storage, with 75GB currently in use (filled with files…
(Answer requested by Oskar Jackowiak) His full question: “Say I’m charging my Galaxy S10 with my portable powerbank, if I was to drop the phone whilst connected into water will I possibly die and/or will the phone be damaged?” I’d be more worried about the powerbank than the phone, or you. Top-brand phones have been…
(Answer requested by Tiamiy Olawale) If you’re sure it’s the power bank (external battery pack) that’s the problem (i.e. if the phone charges normally from other sources), here’s what to do: Take the defective power bank to a lithium-ion device recycling center or receptacle. Leave it there. Buy a new power bank. (Sorry. There’s no…
(Answer requested by Dan Hopper) Chilly temps (below room temp, but above freezing) will temporarily reduce the amount of power available from a given battery charge, but won’t permanently hurt anything. Freezing cold may render a phone completely, but temporarily, inert. However attempting to recharge a below-freezing battery can cause permanent damage. Extreme cold by…
(Answer requested by Kimberley Johnson) They sure can give different results, can’t they? But it’s not so much because the guts of the mikes are wildly different. Rather, it’s how they’re used. In a laptop, the microphones will pick up not only the intended sounds, but also vibrations from the hard drive and fan; plus…
(Answer requested by Ian Sandoval) Touching with what, and how hard? Even on screens that aren’t meant to be touched (e.g. not a touchscreen!) a simple tap or swipe with a fingertip, where the screen is not visibly deformed, won’t do any harm except maybe to leave behind a little skin oil. A harder touch…
(Answer requested by A.R.Talha) The answer depends on how old the battery is. By human analogy, think of the 100% effort that a 20 year old footballer can give compared to the 100% effort of a nursing home resident. It’s a full 100% effort in both cases, but the latter is less overall than the…