Long gone, but now back… sort of. :)
A good externally powered USB hub — that is, one with its own separate power supply — is what you need. The external power is key because USB is fundamentally a data transfer standard, not a battery-charging standard. Charging takes a lot more power than data-transfer; a PC’s built-in USB sockets are simply not designed…
Yes, absolutely, although the usual rule is 80/20. A li-ion battery is stressed the most during the top and bottom 20% of its charging range; and the closer to 100% or 0% you get, the greater the stress. In other words, charging from 99% to 100% is way harder on a battery than charging from…
In “Smartphone cameras have come a long way,” you saw some early, warts-and-all test snapshots I took with a Galaxy S10’s three rear cameras. Since then, I found a very useful software setting buried in the camera menus: It reduces the barrel distortion that was evident in the wide-angle shots. And when I say the…
I recently got a new Samsung Galaxy S10, and have been playing with its three rear cameras. If you follow smartphones, or cameras, you probably have seen comparison and demo pix taken by professional reviewers to show the capabilities of the new crop of smartphone cameras. You’ve also probably seen the studio-quality promotional shots taken…
In response to “Is there any way to charge a phone faster?,” reader Peter Rothschild sent in the following interesting and very surprising post, based on his real-life measurements of smartphone charging times. Fascinating info about differences in USB charging cables! (Thanks, Peter!): “I have done a bit of experimenting with this on my last…
(Answer requested by Mark Austin) There actually are multiple ways to run Android on Windows, including the official emulator that’s part of Google’s free Android Studio. It’s excellent — Google is the de facto authority on all things Android — but it’s aimed at developers, and so might not be quite what you’re looking for….
Sure, turn it off! Seriously, your phone will charge fastest when it’s fully powered off and connected to an active charger. If a full power-off charge isn’t possible, power down as much you can. Some things you can do: Turn the screen brightness down to the lowest level you can use; use Dark Theme/Night Mode…
The older column reprinted below was originally published in the August 13, 2015 , Windows Secrets newsletter. This older content supplements brand-new content posted today (April 8, 2019) in the AskWoody Plus newsletter, available here. An upcoming column will update and refine the information below. (I’m reprinting selected Windows Secrets columns here to help ensure…
Reader Steven Clifford Cohen asks: “I disabled the driver for the camera on my laptop. I also put tape over it. Is that enough?” Enough to prevent video-based snooping, sure. But opaque tape alone would do that; a camera can’t see through an opaque object, period. However, if you’re really worried about remote-snooping, consider the…
Removing active malware will stop it from doing further or future local damage, but that’s all. You may still have trouble left over from the original, now-removed infection source. For example, removing ransomware from your PC or phone won’t automatically decrypt your files — they’ll still be inaccessible. You’ll have to restore your device from…