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What the Coming USB 3.2 Standard Means for You

Just when you thought you could chitchat with authority about USB standards at your next dinner party, a new one comes along to shake everything up again. The latest USB 3.2 standard is going to be confirmed in September, and here’s what that means for your laptop, your phone, and those new USB-C cables you just went out and bought.

A very brief history of USB

USB, or Universal Serial Bus, is an agreed-upon standard that makes sure if you buy kit with USB technology built in, then it’s all going to work happily together. While we have a certain amount of dongle hell to deal with today, it’s nothing compared to the early 90s, when computer peripherals used all kinds of weird and wonderful connectors, and it took at least half a morning to install and configure your latest purchase.

The big computing beasts Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Nortel started work on the USB standard in 1994, with the original USB 1.0 specification arriving in January 1996, with its blazing standard speed of 1.5 Mbit/s.

USB 2.0 followed in April 2000, ramping up speeds to 480 Mbit/s—not all that important for a joystick but invaluable for an external hard drive. Another significant upgrade arrived in November 2008 with USB 3.0, upping the potential data transfer rates again to 5 Gbps while keeping backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 gear. If you have the latest USB 3.1 installed today, then you have the potential for up to 10 Gbps of data transfer, even if most consumer peripherals don’t get close to that. There’s also support for providing 100W of power, which is why laptops can now be charged via USB.

Cords, plugs, and data

The USB standards as set out by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) cover a host of technologies: Not just the protocols for shifting data, but also the cables you can use, and the connectors on the end of those cables. The USB-C port we’ve been hearing so much about lately is linked to, but technically separate from, the USB standards for data transfer. It was also developed by the USB-IF, and it was announced around the same time as USB 3.1, but it also works with USB 2.0 cables and gear.

In other words, just because your cable has a USB-C connector on the end doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting the goodness of USB 3.1. Obviously it’s easier to develop connectors and cables alongside data protocols—USB-C is specifically designed to take advantage of the benefits of USB 3.1, benefits like carrying enough power to charge laptops—but they’re actually two separate standards, albeit closely related. Cables using the familiar, flat USB-A connectors can still have USB 3.1 inside (look for the turquoise coloring as an easy way to check).

USB-C has been designed as the port and connector of the future, one that will work with everything from phones to laptops (and work both ways up as well, as an added bonus). We’re not there yet, but over the next couple of years USB-C and USB 3.1 will become the standard on electronics gear, at least until the next spec rolls around…

The USB 3.2 standard

USB 3.2 is (as the name suggests) the next step up from USB 3.1, though it won’t be appearing in your local Best Buy any time soon—it’s only just been announced by the USB-IF, and its headline feature is its support for what’s called multi-lane operation, where two lanes of 5 Gbps or 10 Gbps can run together in tandem by utilizing extra wires inside USB cables. The theoretical maximum transfer rate therefore gets bumped up to 20 Gbps.

Apart from that pretty significant speed boost, the USB 3.2 spec is a relatively minor upgrade, which might be why it only gets an extra 0.1 on the number count. It will of course work with USB-C connectors, and in most cases you won’t have to upgrade your cables if your laptop or phone uses USB 3.2 (more on this below).

The USB 3.2 spec is expected to be finalized in September but how soon we start seeing in consumer electronics depends on a number of factors, including market trends, manufacturing schedules, and profit margins. At least having just a minor upgrade this time around means the USB ports on our gadgets won’t need to be significantly retooled to get the standard supported.

Future-proofing your USB buying

The good news for us humble consumers is that older USB standards tend to stick around for a long time, and newer standards are often backwards compatible—new cables will work with old computers and phones, just with some of the performance perks dialled down. To put it another way, you don’t necessarily have to upgrade your microUSB smartphone just to get on the USB-C bandwagon, because microUSB is going to be supported for a long time yet.

That said, if you want to future-proof your purchases and make sure they’re going to work with all of the other shiny new gear coming out this year and next, look for devices and cables that come with the top-end combination of USB 3.1 and USB-C connectors. You might not get blazing speeds when you connect them up to older equipment, but they’ll be ready for the next wave of hardware that comes along.

The bump to USB 3.2 means some existing cables will potentially be able to double their data transfer rates. If you’re using USB 3.0 or USB 3.1 cables with USB-C connectors, they’ll be able to send twice as much data—either 2 x 5 Gbps or 2 x 10 Gbps—thanks to the multi-lane technology in USB 3.2. You’ll need equipment that supports the new USB 3.2 standard at each end of the cables, but the cables themselves don’t need to be replaced to get the extra speeds.

The Phone Repairs You Probably Shouldn’t Try At Home

Having a broken phone is not a situation you want to be in for long but there’s always the question of whether to stump up the cash for a professional repair or have a go at fixing it yourself (assuming you’ve no insurance or warranty coverage). This should be your guide for deciding when to tackle some DIY repairs and when to leave it to the experts.

Software bugs

Software problems are the easiest to fix on a phone, though you shouldn’t automatically assume you can fix everything. Issues with one app in particular can often be sorted out by uninstalling and reinstalling the app, which should clear out any corrupted temporary data and reset everything back to normal.

If you’re noticing crashes and slowdowns more generally on your phone, we’ve written plenty of guides in the past on improving performance on Android and iOS—freeing up as much storage space as you possibly can is usually the way to go, as you can’t exactly upgrade the CPU and RAM. You should always install OS and app updates too, though these days it’s pretty hard to avoid doing that.

The most effective and comprehensive fix for software problems and slowdowns on your phone is always a hard factory reset, putting your phone back to the way it was when you first got it before all those nonsense apps and huge photo libraries took over. It’s not difficult to do, but you need to back up all your stuff first.

On stock Android devices, go to System then Reset in Settings (the version of Android you’re using may differ slightly); on iOS, you need to go to General and Reset inside Settings. After a few minutes, your phone will completely forget who you are, and you’ll have to start the setup process again.

Dropped phone

A dropped phone isn’t always cracked screens. Sometimes it causes smaller issues that can lead to frustrating hassles. It can mess with the contacts in the charging mechanism, so if your handset gives you the option to switch to wireless charging rather than a cable, see if that’s enough to bring your phone back to life.

A hard reset can sometimes bring a dropped phone back to life too, though the odds aren’t great. On an iPhone, you need to press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Volume Down button for at least ten seconds until you (hopefully) see the Apple logo; on Android, check the instructions from your manufacturer, but on the Pixel you just press and hold the power button for at least ten seconds.

Beyond those attempts there’s not a great deal you can fix it yourself unless you know your way around your phone as well as the folks at iFixit. It’s possible that some careful disassembling can fix whatever’s gone wrong ,but it’s something of a long shot.

Chances are that the drop has permanently damaged or dislodged something inside your phone, so a professional repair shop is really your best option—they’ll be able to take the phone apart for you, spot what’s gone wrong, and tell you whether the component can be fixed or replaced.

Smashed phone

A drop for your phone is usually associated with a screen smash. This could be anything from small and barely noticeable to large and stretching all across the display, and that’s also going to affect how you go about fixing it. If the damage is particularly bad then you’re going to need to replace the screen.

You can, if you want, tackle this yourself if you trust your hand-eye coordination and think you’ve got the skills for the job. iFixit has some excellent guides for Android and iOS so you can follow the instructions to get a new screen in place. Check the guide for your phone first and you’ll know how much effort is involved.

You’re going to need a screwdriver and a replacement screen, which shouldn’t be too difficult to source given the number of people prone to dropping their phones out of their pockets. You might want to compare the price of a new display against the price of getting everything fixed professionally to help decide what you want to do.

There’s no shame in admitting defeat and taking the phone in somewhere to be repaired by the experts. Apple will do it for you, as will some other manufacturers, and so will your local repair shop—these people do screen replacements all the time, so they’re likely to be much better and faster at it.

Dunked phone

Thankfully just about all modern-day handsets are now water resistant, though there are some outliers. If you’ve got a handset that’s not water resistant, and it’s taken a dunk, then you can try a few tricks to get it working yourself—it really depends on the extent of the damage and the make of phone.

Before you do anything else, turn the phone off, pop the SIM card out just in case, and wipe the handset down with a towel to see how much harm might have been done. Give it an hour or two to try out, and see if it comes back on. The key is to let the drying happen as naturally as possible, even if that requires a bit of extra patience. So don’t be afraid to wait 24 hours or longer before trying it out again.

If more drying is required, avoid using a hair dryer as the intensity of the heat can cause extra damage. According to the last local repair shop we visited in person, putting your phone in a bag of rice doesn’t make any difference to the moisture in the insides, but drying phones in a sealed container with silica gel is another common recommendation you might want to try.

Still the best bet is to just be patient and wait. If you turn the device on to soon it will get damaged. Once water damager has occurred there’s one solution left: Head to a professional phone repair service. The staff there won’t be able to work miracles, but they will be better able to safely disassemble and reassemble the phone components and allow them to try out components separately. If the phone still can’t be recovered, it’s time to think about an upgrade.

Dying Phone

In most cases water resistance in phones comes at the cost of a removable battery. That means when you’re battery starts to fail (usually about 3-4 years after purchase) it is time to either buy a new phone, or replace the battery in your current one. You’ll know it’s test when it doesn’t hold a charge for longer than a day, but you can double check by downloading a battery app like Battery Doctor (available for Android and iOS).

If you know your way around tiny tools and have steady hands than it’s not terribly difficult to replace the battery on a smartphone, it just takes a lot of patience and care. Batteries can usually be found for about $10-$15 online, and tutorials are available on Youtube or via iFixit.

If cracking your phone open and saving a few bucks doesn’t appeal than any repair shop can do replace it in about fifteen minutes. They charge anywhere from $50 to $100, so definitely shop around before walking into the closest repair shop.

If the shop doesn’t have the time (or the battery for your device) you’ll need to contact the manufacturer and hope it doesn’t charge too high a fee for a battery replacement. Apple, for example, charges a flat $80 for the repair. That’s a lot, but it is still less than the cost of a new phone.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Wireless Charging

Years after it first appeared, wireless charging has finally arrived on the iPhone—but what is this magical charging method that’s been on other big phones for a couple of years now? And is it really all that superior to just plugging your phone into the wall every night? Here’s what you need to know about wireless charging, and the kit you need to make it work.

How wireless charging works

The key to wireless (or inductive) charging are electromagnetic fields, used to transfer energy from one place (a charging mat) to another (your phone) through the magic of electromagnetic induction.

Essentially you’ve got two physical coils, one which converts energy into an electromagnetic field that can travel wirelessly, and one which converts that floating field back into energy again—the two coils form a transformer. That’s why the wireless charging cat was out of the bag as soon as a coil was spotted in leaked schematics for the iPhone 8.

If your phone doesn’t support wireless charging out of the box, you can often get a case or adapter that takes care of all of the necessary power transfer processes and feeds the juice straight into the handset—you don’t have to miss out on the wireless charging. Considering wireless charging pads are usually optional extras anyway, you can just add another adapter to your basket.

We’ll get on to standards in a moment, but in addition to the popular magnetic induction method we’ve explained above, you also need to know about the magnetic resonance method—in essence, it’s not all that different, but it increases charging distances, makes it easier for multiple devices to charge up at once on the same charger, and can work through more, and thicker, materials.

For most smartphone owners, that’s as much as you’ll need to know, but pay attention to the quoted voltage of your phone and your charger—the charging speed will be limited by whichever is the slower, and it’ll usually be significantly slower than plugging your phone into a wall. That said, you should also bear in mind that these specs and standards are improving all the time, as the technology gets more efficient, and the prices of the required components come down.

Wireless charging standards

As we said at the outset, wireless charging has been with us for years, in everything from electric toothbrushes to the Nokia Lumia 820 from 2012. Of course, tech wouldn’t be tech without a few differing and incompatible standards to stay abreast of.

The big one, as far as wireless charging goes—the one supported by most phones and the new iPhones—is Qi (pronounced “chee”) charging. Qi is developed by the Wireless Power Consortium, and its 247 members include the likes of Apple, Google, Samsung and just about every other big name in electronics manufacturing. The latest phones from Apple, Samsung and LG all have Qi built in.

The other main contender is AirFuel, formed from a partnership between the Alliance for Wireless Power and the Power Matters Alliance. Like Qi, the standard supports both magnetic induction and magnetic resonance, but its implemented in a slightly different way, so the two technologies aren’t compatible with each other (you can’t charge up a Qi-enabled phone on a AirFuel-enabled mat).

AirFuel (previously known as Powermat) isn’t as widespread as Qi, but some major handsets support it (the Galaxy S8 family can work with both Qi and AirFuel), and it’s the wireless charging technology that Starbucks has installed at its outlets—although the coffee seller is now adding Qi support as well.

As long as you buy accessories using the same standard as your smartphone, you can’t go far wrong, but if you’re wondering why you’ve put your iPhone X down on an AirFuel charging pad at Starbucks and it’s not working, now you know.

What you need for wireless charging

Despite the complex technologies underpinning wireless charging, and the competing standards fighting it out for market share, it’s not that difficult to figure out what you need to set up your own wireless charging solution—check the standard supported by your phone, get an accessory to match, and you’re away.

Plenty of phones now support the Qi standard, including newer models from LG and Samsung, and the new iPhones. Meanwhile, AirFuel wireless charging is available in this year’s LG G6, all the Samsung Galaxy phones of recent years, and some less well-known models. If you’re desperate to use the technology, you can invest in a power ring that slots into the bottom of your phone and enables it to be charged up by any AirFuel charger.

It’s not quite so essential to buy official accessories from the same company that makes your phone when it comes to wireless charging: All Qi-enabled chargers will work with all Qi-enabled handsets, for example, so take your pick. As we mentioned earlier though, double-check the maximum power ratings—you really want your phone and charger to match, otherwise one will be holding the other back.

Apple being Apple, it’s bringing out its own bespoke charging mat called AirPower, which is based on Qi technology. It will charge up any 2017 iPhone, your AirPods (as long as they’re in Apple’s official charging case), and the Apple Watch Series 3 (though not the Series 1 or 2). It’s not clear exactly how AirPower builds on Qi—it has some special features like multiple (Apple) device support, and charging status indicators across all your devices—but you can also charge your iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X on any standard Qi-enabled mat if you prefer.

Samsung, for its part, also offers a “fast charging” wireless pad based around Qi technology—it charges up compatible Samsung phones faster in return for running hotter, something that’s mitigated with an integrated fan. With Samsung’s handsets supporting Qi and AirFuel tech too, you’ve got plenty of choice.

The pros and cons of wireless charging

Just dropping your phone on a mat (or piece of furniture) is obviously more convenient than hunting around for a wire and then fixing it in place, and convenience is the biggest reason to use wireless charging over the cabled alternative.

It has its downsides though: You can’t really use your phone very easily while it’s charging (not yet, anyway), and the charging is slower than it is when your phone is plugged in. Magnetic induction charging is faster than magnetic resonance, but as we’ve mentioned your two devices also need to be closer and more exactly aligned.

That might not sound the most resounding endorsement of wireless charging, but once you actually get to use it, that extra convenience can really pay off—buy two or three pads, and any time your phone isn’t in your hand, it can be charging, at home or the office or in the car. If you need to take a call or check a text, you can pick it right up and set it right back down without yanking out a cable or tripping yourself up.

Now that both Samsung and Apple have embraced wireless charging (over to you, Google), the technology should advance at an even greater rate than we’ve already seen, and that means wireless charging that’s more ubiquitous and that closes the gap in terms of speed and voltage on wired charging.

Take for example the Pi Charger, due to launch next year, which is promising to charge devices as soon as they get close, thanks to specially tuned magnetic fields. As companies figure out ways to make wireless charging even more useful and even more frictionless, it’s finally set to become the new norm for smartphones—after a very long run up.

How to Stop Your Computer from Slowing Down

As months and years pass by, even the most powerful computer can start to slow down and show signs of age, much like a car. But as with your automobile, there are steps to take that will minimize the creeping sluggishness and keep your laptop running as fast as possible for as long as possible. Here are a couple of easy steps you can take to keep your computer from slowing down.

1) Keep programs and extensions to a minimum

Desktop applications and browser extensions are usually the main culprits when your computer starts slowing down. The more of them the OS has to deal with, the more work it has to do and the more system resources are used up.

Try and think twice before installing anything new and ask yourself whether you genuinely need it on your system. Perhaps there’s a web version you can use instead, say, or maybe you can run a portable version from a USB stick.

For those applications and browser plug-ins that you really can’t live without, make sure you’re cleaning them up regularly. Anything that’s sitting gathering dust on your system should really be uninstalled, for the reasons we’ve already mentioned—it means your OS isn’t always tripping up over them.

There are various third-party utilities available to help tidy up your applications and browsers and make sure bloat is kept to a minimum, and CCleaner is one of the best cross-platform, free ones we’ve found.

Another reason this is a good idea is to keep as much local storage space free as possible. Start running out of hard drive space and system sluggishness is sure to soon follow.

2) Don’t let anything auto-start

A lot of programs are keen to start up at the same time as Windows or macOS, and while this enables them to load themselves quickly into memory when you need them, it also means your computer is taking more and more time to boot up and function.

To check what’s starting alongside the OS, go to the Startup tab of the Task Manager on Windows (right-click on the taskbar to launch it), or Users & Groups in System Preferences on a Mac (look under the Login Items tab).

It’s fair to say that auto-starting works well for some applications, particularly those that you always want to hand, but if you can keep this list of programs down to a minimum then you should see the benefit in overall performance. Some trial and error might be required to work out which are the biggest system resource hogs on your computer.

3) Make computer security a top priority

Another common cause of system slowdowns are unwanted malware apps that sneak onto your system. Not just full-blown viruses but also browser extensions gathering advertising data and dodgy utilities that are bundled with genuinely useful software.

This feeds back into the point we made earlier, that being very selective about what you install is going to benefit you and your computer in the long run.

Of course unwanted malware and adware can install itself surreptitiously too, which is where a competent security package can really earn its keep. Freeware is very appealing for obvious reasons but this is one of those situations where spending a few dollars for something professional is a worthy investment, provided you pick the right package.

Our friends at Lifehacker have some quality recommendations for security software that will work on your Windows or Mac machine (you’re less likely to come across problems on the latter but it’s still worth considering).

4) Update everything regularly

Updating your software and firmware can often seem like a chore, but it’s one of the keys to maintaining a healthy system for a number of reasons. It patches security bugs, it (usually) optimizes code, it adds new features, and it improves compatibility with all the other hardware and software you’ve got on your system.

Particularly with the modern versions of Windows, macOS, and all the applications that run on them, keeping software updated is crucial in avoiding slowdowns and crashes, which is why many apps now auto-update in the background.

On Windows, you can find the update settings behind the Update & security entry on the main Settings dialog (accessible from the Start menu); on macOS, head to the App Store and click on the Updates tab to see what’s available.

5) Refresh, reset, repeat

And on a point related to the last one, it’s often well worth resetting your entire computer back to its factory state on a regular basis, as you’ll usually get some significant performance boosts at the same time.

In the not-so-distant past the benefits of doing this were outweighed by the hassle of having to get everything reformatted and reinstalled, but the most recent versions of Windows 10 and macOS Sierra make the whole process much more straightforward. You can even reset the system without losing any of your personal data.

On Windows, head to Update & security in Settings to get started (there’s a fuller guide here); on a Mac, find the Disk Utility tool by rebooting your machine and holding down Cmd+R as it starts to boot up again (full guide).

You need to make sure you’ve got backups of all your important stuff, and that you can easily download and reinstall any software you need if necessary, but these small inconveniences aside it’s like a spring clean for your system and should stop ever-increasing slowness.

Finally, as a bonus sixth tip, consider getting a Chromebook.

Top 10 Ways to Extend Your Laptop’s Battery Life

There’s nothing good about running out of juice when you’re trying to get stuff done, and being unable to find a plug to recharge your battery in the meantime. If you work on the go at all, here are some easy tips to extend the life of your laptop’s battery, both in a pinch and before you leave the house.

  1. Tweak Your Built-In Power Saving Options

First, the easy fix: Get familiar with your laptop’s power management features. In Windows, it’s “Power Options,” which you can bring up by hitting Start and typing just that. In macOS, it’s in System Preferences under Energy Saver. Don’t overlook these, and don’t assume that the defaults are designed to save you juice. If you know you’ll be out and about with your laptop, tell your laptop to sip power as lightly as possible before you leave, so you don’t have to scale back what you’re doing after you’re already out.

  1. Use Your Laptop Manufacturer’s Battery Maintenance Tools

Depending on the manufacturer of your laptop, they may include or offer battery maintenance tools that can tell you a lot about the health of your battery, along with their recommendations to extend its maximum life. For example, Sony and Lenovo both have tweaked battery maintenance panels, or their own utilities, depending on the version of Windows you’re using.

  1. Grab a Battery Monitor for Deeper Insights on Charges, Cycles, and Remaining Life

If your manufacturer doesn’t have a specific battery maintenance tool—or you wiped it away in your last clean install or PC de-crapifying, all isn’t lost. There are a number of free utilities that can tell you everything you want to know about your laptop’s battery, no matter who made it (that includes you, MacBook owners.)

  1. Keep the Brightness Down When You’re On the Go

If you’re out and about already, looking at a battery that may not make it to the next outlet you’ll have access to, the first thing you can do is to cut power to your laptop’s biggest power sink: the screen. Obviously when your laptop isn’t in use, it’ll be sleeping, but when it is in use, you can save some juice by keeping the screen brightness as low possible (while still being usable, of course.) If you have a Windows machine, you may even consider disabling adaptive brightness and controlling it yourself.

  1. Keep It Cool

Heat is a battery killer, and it doesn’t just kill its short term life, it’ll shorten your battery’s long-term health as well.We’ve mentioned this before on several occasions, but it helps to keep your laptop as cool as possible, or at least avoid restricting airflow when you’re using it on the go. Grab a lap desk, keep the back elevated a bit if the fans are on the bottom, and avoid crowding the sides or back.

  1. Avoid Full Discharges

We’re not going to wade into or settle the debate over whether it’s healthy or unhealthy for a battery to allow it to discharge completely and then charge it back up again—that’s for another day. However, one thing is for certain—most batteries do have a finite number of charge cycles, after which their efficiency is sorely depleted.

  1. Kill Power-Hungry Apps and Processes

Along with minimizing the brightness of your laptop’s display, another tweak that’ll save you energy both before you’re low and when you are low is to kill any power-hungry apps or tools that run in the background while you work. It’s another old tip, back from the days when you could have tons of background processes sucking down power—more than today, really—but it’s still worth keeping an eye on.

  1. Kill Power-Hungry Hardware, Too

As well as power-hungry applications, if you’re trying to squeeze as much possible battery life from your gear while you’re on the go, it helps to turn off any unnecessary hardware or features as well. Now would be a good time to disable Wi-Fi unless you need it, or Bluetooth for that matter. Don’t go crazy disabling every little hardware feature you have just to score a little more time, but if you’re out and about and don’t need some of those power-hungry features, certainly turn them off.

  1. Use Hibernate, not Just Sleep, Whenever Possible

You may be tempted to just shut your laptop’s screen every time it’s not in use to save as much battery as you can, and that’s a good idea if you’ll open it again later, but if you can, use hibernate instead. The difference is simple—in hibernate, your laptop isn’t using power at all, while during sleep it’s still sipping power, just much much less.

  1. Kill Those Tabs, or Try a Different Browser

This one might be a non-starter for many people, but your web browser is likely the most power-hungry app or tool you use, and more than a few browser developers know it. First, if you’re the type with a billion tabs open all the time, get familiar with how to manage them easily, or try an add-on like The Great Suspender, which can unload them from memory when not in use—which also saves your battery.

6 Tips for Longer Laptop Battery Life

We’ve all been there. You’re in a meeting, or on the road, or in a classroom, and you find, to your horror, that your laptop is nearly dead. Maybe you forgot your power adapter, maybe there isn’t an available outlet. For whatever reason, your battery power is dwindling, and you still have stuff to get done. Hope is not lost, however. There are some things you can do to buy more time on that almost-dead battery so you can meet a deadline or respond to an important email before it’s too late.

Some of these techniques are for when you need to stretch your battery at that very moment, while others are preventative measures, best implemented before your battery life comes up short. There is some of overlap between the short- and long-term strategies we’ll outline below, but even when the actions are the same, the reasons behind them may be different.

Short-Term Battery-Stretching Strategies

If you’re in a tough spot right now, there are things you can do to extend the battery life immediately. None of these actions will actually increase the amount of power left in the battery, but instead will reduce the amount of power the laptop is using, letting you squeeze in a few more precious minutes before the battery goes kaput. The name of the game in these instances is power consumption, and you need to reduce yours to as little as possible.

  1. Activate Your Laptop’s Battery Saver or Eco Mode

Designed with these sorts of circumstances in mind, most Battery Saver or Eco modes will engage a number of automatic changes to lengthen usable battery life—many of the same changes we’ll be making here. This saved profile will adjust your laptop’s settings and shift components into low-power states to help you ration your remaining juice a bit longer.

Once you’ve turned on the automatic battery-saver tool, there are still plenty of steps to take to eke out even better efficiency. This is done by turning off unnecessary devices, adjusting settings to reduce power consumption, shutting down unwanted apps and processes, and adjusting your activities to use less power.

  1. Disable Unused Devices and Ports

The easiest way to reduce power consumption is to simply turn stuff off. Every component in your laptop needs power to function, but that doesn’t mean you need to power all of those components all of the time. Start by disconnecting any unneeded peripherals (like a USB mouse or external drive) and turning off the biggest power hogs, like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios, graphics processors, and unused optical drives.

WARNING: Before disabling any component or device, make sure that the device is not in use, and that it is not essential to continuing operation of the laptop. For example, you do not want to disable the hard drive that houses the operating system, or the processor the runs the entire laptop. Only disable those devices you are comfortable turning off.

To disable unused devices on a Windows system, open up your system’s Control Panel and find the Device Manager. In the Device Manager, individual components are grouped by category. For example, Network Adapters will often include both the LAN adapter, which provides Ethernet connectivity, and Wi-Fi, for wireless networking.

The four standard candidates for saving power are the graphics card (found under Display Adapters), the optical drive (found under DVD/CD-ROM Drives), and the Ethernet and Wi-Fi adapters (under Network Adapters). Find the device you want to shut down within the relevant category. Right click on the device name, and select “Disable” from the drop down menu.

While you’re in the Device Manager, you can also turn off any unused ports. Just like an extension cord left plugged into an outlet, these unused plugs still have power going through them, and losing some in the process. The actual impact on battery life will be minimal, but if you’re desperate for another minute or two of life, this will help. Take a quick glance at your ports, and turn off anything that’s not being used, like USB ports with nothing connected to them.

While you can disable USB ports on a Mac using the terminal program, it’s something that IT administrators would use to lock down Macs for security purposes. We don’t recommend doing it as an end user because it may make your system act up. You can, however, disable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi from the Menu bar at the top of the screen.

  1. Adjust Your Settings

While you’ll still have to use the display and the keyboard, you can adjust the settings for each to reduce power consumption. One often overlooked power drain is keyboard backlighting. Unless you’re in the dark and need the backlight just to make out each key, turn off the backlight entirely. You can typically assign a hotkey for this function.

The next power drain is your screen. While you obviously need to keep it up and running to use the laptop, you don’t necessarily need it running at maximum brightness or resolution. Many laptops will have hotkeys for increasing and decreasing the screen brightness, but if not, it can be adjusted in the control panel. Reducing the display to 50 percent when you’re running on battery power can add a significant amount of time.

Additionally, if you’re simply typing up a document, you don’t need all of the detail offered by a 1080p or higher display. Dialing down the screen resolution to a basic 1,366-by-768 resolution or lower reduces the amount of power used in graphics processing without negatively impacting your ability to work, letting your laptop hang on a bit longer.

Finally, turn off or turn down the sound. If you need to hear, drop the sound down as low as you can, and consider switching from the laptop’s larger speakers to a set of tiny earbuds to get the audio piped right to your ears. Whenever possible, just mute the laptop altogether. That way, the speakers won’t be getting any power, and you’ll buy yourself some more precious time.

  1. Turn Off Apps and Processes

It’s not just the hardware that’s stealing your battery juice. Multiple apps and processes running on your system will also chew through battery life more quickly. As with the hardware, start by turning off anything that isn’t being used.

In Windows, start by taking a look in your system tray, the collection of icons in the lower-right corner of the desktop, next to the clock. On the left end of the System Tray, select the icon to display hidden icons. Take note of which apps are running in the background.

Open up the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc, or use Ctrl+Alt+Del and select Task Manager from the menu. Once in the Task Manager, look at the open apps—you may find that a program or two have been left running simply because you forgot to close a window instead of minimizing it.

Next, go to the Processes tab. This shows you what processes are currently running on your machine. While some of these are needed, some, like those associated with music and video players or cloud storage services (like Dropbox or Google Drive) can be disabled without causing any problems.

For MacBooks, the process is a little different. Take a look at System Preferences > Users&Groups for a menu called Login Items. Delete any power-hungry programs that you don’t need anymore, or disable things like Google Chrome’s automatic launch at startup. You can also see programs that are using a lot of power at any given moment by holding down the Option key and clicking on the battery indicator in the Menu bar. Alternately, you can open the Activity Monitor utility to see a list of all the programs and processes you currently have open , and which of these are using the most power. You can stop these processes by selecting the program and then clicking the Stop icon. Power Nap is an Apple OS X feature that checks your email and twitter feeds for activity while the system is asleep. If you are trying to maximize battery life, it would be wise to turn off that feature.

  1. Simplify

You can also stretch your battery life by simplifying your own activities. Multitasking is nice when you have full power, but running several programs at once puts a greater load on the processor and draws more power. Adjust your computer use by sticking to one application at a time and avoiding resource-intensive programs.

Start by single-tasking—if you need to type up a document, close any additional programs. You’ll get longer battery life by not running Spotify in the background. If you need to keep some tunes going, switch from streaming media to locally stored songs—you’ll still be using some extra power to play them, but streaming media over Wi-Fi also uses the laptop’s wireless radio.

You might also benefit from switching to simpler tools for the same tasks, like typing in a basic text editor rather than using Microsoft Word. It may have fewer features and none of Word’s automatic actions (like Spell Check and Autosave), but you can do all the writing you need without using quite so much power. Some applications you’ll want to avoid entirely, like photo and video editing tools, which place a significant load on the processor and graphics card, and are real power hogs.

By eliminating unnecessary power uses, you should be able to extend the life of your battery in those moments that you find yourself high and dry.

Long-Term Strategies

These tweaks will help turn your system into a lean, mean energy-efficient machine, adding to both the useful time you get out of a single charge, and extending the overall life span of the battery.

  1. Care and Feeding of Batteries

It starts with taking care of the battery itself. If your system has a removable battery, take care not to damage the battery contacts. They connect the laptop to the battery, and if the contacts get dirty or damaged, it can reduce and disrupt the flow of power. You can clean the contacts with a cotton swab and rubbing alcohol, but damaged contacts might need to be professionally repaired. This doesn’t apply to laptops that seal the battery into the chassis.

You may have heard old tips about charging your battery to only 80 percent, and not leaving it on the charger all the time, but most of that advice is outdated, and applies to older nickel metal hydride batteries but not the lithium ion and lithium-polymer batteries used today. While modern laptop batteries don’t require you to be as conscientious about how and when you charge your battery, you should occasionally take the opportunity to let the battery drain completely through normal use.

Finally, keep things cool. Heat will shorten the long-term life of the battery, so take steps to provide optimal airflow and cooling. The biggest problems come from physical obstruction of the ventilation ports. Dust buildup is one problem, which you can take care of by cleaning the laptop’s vents and fan. A can of compressed air can be used to blow out some of the dust. The more frequent issue that crops up is using the laptop on a pillow or blanket, which can both obstruct the ventilation fan and retain the heat coming off of the system. This can be avoided by only using your laptop on surfaces like a table or desk, and a lapdesk will make a big difference when using a laptop in bed.

How to keep a laptop cool

A hot laptop means it’s either working too hard, or there could be a problem with the fans. These are easy to fix though, and we show you how.

When you first turn on your laptop it should be cool to the touch and ready for work. Run a few intensive tasks, or play some graphically demanding games, and this can soon change to the point where keeping the device on your lap becomes a challenge due to the heat emanating from its hull.

Ensuring that a device remains at a sensible temperature not only means that you won’t cook your thighs while editing a video, but could also prevent damage to the internal components. So here are some simple ways to keep your laptop cool.

Why does my laptop get so hot?

Most of the heat from a laptop is generated by the processor and other components that get increasingly warm as more demands are put upon them. So, if you’re casually browsing Facebook then the heat should be minimal, but if you’re playing with 3D models in Windows 10 while transcoding some video in the background then the machine is working much harder and will soon heat up.

Manufacturers counter this perennial problem by placing fans inside, which spin up when the laptop reaches certain temperature thresholds, thus creating an airflow that cools down the components. That’s why laptops also get noisier as they get hotter.

Cleaning the fans and vents

Fans are vital when it comes to keeping your laptop cool. Therefore, it’s important that you check them regularly to see if they’re getting clogged up with dust and dirt.

This, unfortunately, isn’t possible on a lot of laptops because the fans are located deep inside where you can’t get to them. You might, however, be able to unscrew a panel underneath the device and give any fans you can see a quick once over.

If there’s any kind of dust build-up, then a spot of hoovering (ensuring that a plastic nozzle is attached to the end of the vacuum cleaner) can put things right in a couple of minutes.

Cans of compressed air are also a good way to dislodge the detritus that can make its home in your fans, and these are widely available online or from shops such as Maplin.

The other area that needs to be kept clean is the vents which allow the hot air to escape. These are generally slots in the plastic or metal frames of the laptop, which are found on the sides or bottom of the case.

Give these the same attention as the fans and hopefully you’ll see an improvement in temperature of your laptop.

Keep air flowing around the laptop itself

If you like to use your laptop while on the sofa, in bed, or anywhere other than a desk, then sometimes it can be a cause of heat build-up. The reason for this is because the vents can be blocked by blankets, or pillows.

A much better option is to purchase a laptop cooling pad. These are essentially padded trays that you place on your lap, but which contain additional fans and vents which keep your device cool.

Is software making my laptop hot?

Sometimes your laptop can be overworked by an application that’s gone a bit rogue, demanding more and more performance from your processor, RAM, and hard drives.

A quick way to see if this is happening is to use the Task Manager.

To open it, press Ctrl-Shift-Esc together on your keyboard.

You’ll see a list of all the programs running, with how much of its resources are being allocated to each app. If one seems to be hogging more than its fair share then it might be worth shutting that program, or at least restarting it to see if things calm down.

Sometimes it’s Windows that causes the problem: try to identify exactly which process or program is using too much CPU or disk and search for that online to find a specific guide on how to fix it.

How can I control my laptop fan speeds?

One last option you can try is to alter the fan settings on your machine by using either the BIOS or third-party software. Either route can often allow you to set certain thresholds, which means that your PC will automatically begin the cooling process earlier to avoid a concentration of heat.

This route is a little more technical than those above, but grants you a lot more control over how the heat is expelled from your machine.

Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL: Everything you need to know about Google’s new flagships

Google is back with a follow-up to its acclaimed Pixel phone, and it’s not quite what we expected. Yes there is a Pixel 2 and a Pixel 2 XL, but unlike last year, they aren’t larger and smaller versions of the same phone. The smaller Pixel 2 looks a lot like last year’s phone, but the XL version has a new screen size, ratio, and design.

Aside from how they look, there are a lot of changes in this year’s Pixel 2 lineup, and this is the place to learn all about them:

Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL: Display

While the smaller Pixel 2 has the exact same display as last year’s model—a 5-inch 1080×1920 Full HD AMOLED screen with 441 PPI density—the Pixel 2 XL has undergone a dramatic change. Not only is it bigger (6 inches vs 5.5 inches), it also has a new ratio (18:9 vs 16:9), and a new manufacturing process (pOLED vs AMOLED) with a 538 psi density. It’s basically the same screen as the LG V30.

Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL: Design

Like the screen sizes, the two Pixel 2s are vastly different in design. The smaller one has the same giant bezels as the original Pixel, but the Pixel 2 XL adopts much skinnier bezels and curved edges on the side of the diplay. Both phones feature the same aluminum rear design, with a camera in the upper left corner surrounded by a glass antenna window that stops just above the fingerprint sensor. And Google has added a dash of color to the power button on some models: On the Kinda Blue Pixel 2 it’s turquoise and on the Black & White Pixel 2 it’s red.

Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL: Sound

Headphone enthusiasts will be bummed to learn that neither Pixel 2 has a 3.5mm jack, so you’ll need to either use a pair of Bluetooth buds or the bundled USB-C-to-3.5mm adapter. To mark the occasion, Google is selling a pair $159 Bluetooth Pixel Buds. However, Google has added front-facing stereo speakers to both Pixels, giving the handsets a boost in the sound department. And what’s more, Google has added 25 volume “steps” for precise control over the loudness.

Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL: Camera

Like the original Pixels, both phones have the same camera, and it’s virtually unchanged from last year, at least on paper: 12.2MP, f/1.8, phase detection & laser autofocus, dual-LED flash. This year’s camera does have optical image stabilization to aid with low-light shots and shaky video–as well as a slight camera bump–but most of the enhancements happen behind the scenes. For the Pixel 2, Google has built its own image signal processor called Pixel Visual Core that helps with performance and efficiency. It’s also found a way to emulate portrait mode without needing a second camera.

Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL: Google Assistant

The Pixel was the first Android phone to ship with Google Assistant built in, but the Pixel 2 takes it a step further. Now you can summon Assistant in a new way. Along with the home button and hands-free “OK Google,” you can also squeeze the sides of the phone to launch Assistant on the Pixel 2. It’s a feature you might remember from the HTC U11, but you can’t customize it on the Pixel 2.

Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL: Android 8 Oreo

Like the Nexus before it, the Pixel is Google’s showcase for stock Android, so the Pixel 2 is running the freshest version of Oreo, bringing features like notification dots, picture in picture, and adaptive icons. There’s also a new Pixel Launcher with a couple changes. A new At A Glance widget shows upcoming calendar appointments and traffic updates along with the date and weather, and the search bar has been moved to the bottom of the screen for easier access. And the best feature of all: Now Playing will automatically identify songs that your Pixel 2 hears.

Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL: Google Lens

Google has included a preview of its new AI-powered Google Lens feature on the Pixel 2. But it’s not a standalone app, it’s actually part of the Photos app. When you open a photo, you’ll see a new camera icon that will launch Google Lens. It’s still in beta mode, so the results can vary, but it will attempt to ID what’s in the picture and offer information, buying links, or related images. It’s particularly useful when scanning addresses or URLs.

Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL: Battery and charging

The Pixel 2 has a 2,700mAh battery and the Pixel 2 XL has a 3,520mAh one, roughly the same as the ones that were in the original Pixels. Of note, however, the Pixel 2 still doesn’t feature support for wireless charging, but it does ship with an 18W fast charger.

Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL: Price and availability

The Pixel 2 starts at $649 for 64GB of storage and tops off at $749 for 128GB while the Pixel 2 XL costs $849 for 64GB of storage and $949 for 128GB. Both phones are available exclusively through Verizon, though unlocked models can be bought through the Google Store and other retailers.

Google Pixel 2 Tips

Activate the secret menu button

Back in the early days of Android, there was a button alongside the back, home, and recents buttons that opened menus at the top of the screen. On the Pixel it’s back, sort of. When in the Settings app, you can open the overflow menu (where applicable) by tapping the empty space next to the square recents button and it will expand the options. It’s not clear if this is a bug or a feature, so it’s possible it’s removed in the next Oreo update.

Turn on dark mode

Android Oreo doesn’t technically have a dark theme, but the Pixel 2 does. However, you can’t turn it on whenever you’d like. When you choose a dark background (like one of the planet earth images inside the Living universe wallpapers folder), it will automatically switch app drawer, and quick settings to a dark theme.

And more

If you’re looking to learn how to turn off Active Edge or use the home screen in landscape mode, check out these tips and tricks.

A brief guide to mobile AI chips

Mobile AI chips. What are they actually good for?

In the recent months we’ve heard a lot about specialized silicon being used for machine learning in mobile devices. Apple’s new iPhones have their “neural engine”; Huawei’s Mate 10 comes with a “neural processing unit”; and companies that manufacture and design chips (like Qualcomm and ARM) are gearing up to supply AI-optimized hardware to the rest of the industry.

What’s not clear, is how much all this benefits the consumer. When you’re buying your phone, should an “AI chip” be on your wish list? If you want to use the latest AI-powered app that (just picking an example at random here) automatically identifies and hides your nude selfies, do you really need an AI chip? Short answer, no, but let’s dig a little deeper.

WHY DO WE NEED AI CHIPS*?

The reason for having mobile AI chips in the first place is pretty straightforward. Regular CPUs found in phones, laptops, and desktops just aren’t well suited to the demands of machine learning, and trying to make them do it ends up with slow service and a fast-draining battery.

Contemporary AI requires computers to make lots of small calculations very quickly, but CPUs only have a handful of “cores” available to do the math. That’s why the industry loves graphical processing units, or GPUs. These were originally designed to render video game graphics, which, coincidentally, requires making lots of small calculations very quickly. Instead of a handful of cores, they have thousands.

Now, fitting thousands of cores into a chip for your phone isn’t going to happen. But there are other architectural changes you can make to increase the number of simultaneous work your chip can do. Qualcomm’s head of AI and machine learning, Gary Brotman, tells The Verge: “I think parallelization is certainly key, and doing it efficiently, especially.” He’s quick to add, though, that dedicated AI compute units aren’t the only way forward — other bits of chip architecture can also be adapted.

*”AI chip” is a usefully recognizable term, but it’s also imprecise. In the case of Huawei and Apple, what’s being offered is not a single, self-contained chip, but dedicated processors that come as part of a bigger SoC (or system on chip), such as Apple’s A11 Bionic. SoCs already contain various specialized components for things like rendering graphics and processing images, so adding a few cores for AI is kind of par for the course.

WHAT DO WE GET OUT OF IT?

As mentioned above, specialized AI hardware means — in theory — better performance and better battery life. But there are also upsides for user privacy and security, and for developers as well.

First, privacy and security. At the moment, a lot of machine learning services have to send your data to the cloud to perform the actual analysis. Companies like Google and Apple have come up with methods to do these sorts of calculations directly on your phone, but they’re not widely used yet. Having dedicated hardware encourages more on-device AI, which means less risk to users of data getting leaked or hacked.

Plus, if you’re not sending data off into the cloud every few seconds, it means users can access services offline and save data. That latter part is a boon for developers, too. After all, if the analysis is done on-device, it saves the people running the app paying for servers. As long as the hardware is up to scratch, everyone benefits.

IS THIS STUFF READY TO USE?

This next section is where things get trickier. Just because a phone has an AI chip, doesn’t mean AI-powered apps and services will be able to take advantage of it.

In the case of Huawei and Apple, for example, both companies have their own APIs that developers need to use to tap the power of their respective “neural” hardware. And before they can integrate that API, they have to make sure the AI framework they used (for example, Google’s TensorFlow or Facebook’s Caffe2) is also supported. If it’s not, they’ll have to convert it, which also takes time.

Anthony Mullen, a tech analyst at Gartner, says navigating this patchwork of interfaces “isn’t for the faint-hearted.” Speaking to The Verge, he says: “It’ll be a while yet before people are developing elaborate experiences using this hardware. Until then there’ll be special partnerships between manufacturers and third-parties.” That’s why Microsoft is working with Huawei to make sure its Translator app works offline with the company’s NPU chip, and why Facebook partnered with Qualcomm to integrate the latter’s AI focused hardware to load its augmented reality filters faster.

But while big companies like these can afford to put in the time, it’s not clear if it’ll be worth the effort for every small app developer. This won’t be a problem for Apple, which developers will only have to adapt their app once, using the company’s Core ML framework; but it could be a headache for Android, especially if different manufacturers all start introducing their own protocols.

Thankfully, Google is using its power over the ecosystem to combat this problem. Its mobile AI framework, TensorFlow Lite, is already standardizing some experiences on mobile devices, and it’s introducing its own Android-wide APIs to “tap into silicon-specific accelerators.”

“From a developer’s standpoint in the Android environment it won’t mitigate all the fragmentation risks,” says Brotman. “But it’ll certainly provide a construct to make it easier.” He adds that some of the effects of this work won’t be fully felt until Android P is ready.

SO DO I NEED AN AI CHIP IN MY PHONE?

No, not really. So much work is being done on making AI services run better on the hardware currently available, that unless you’re a real power user, you don’t need to worry about it.

In both Huawei and Apple’s cases, the primary use of their shiny new hardware is just generally making their phones… better. For Huawei that means monitoring how the Mate 10 is used over its lifetime and reallocating resources to keep it from slowing down; for Apple that means powering new features like Face ID and animoji.

Having computing power dedicated to AI tasks is neat, sure, but so are other features of high-end handsets — like dual camera lenses or waterproofing. Boasting about AI chips makes for good marketing now, it won’t be long before it just becomes another component.

ANDROID SMARTPHONES WITH THE BEST BATTERY LIFE

One of the factors that influences smartphone purchasing decisions the most is battery life. At present, any phone that can last and entire day is considered good. But, among all Android phones, which are the best?

In the curation of this list, we have taken account of benchmark test results and our editors’ real world experiences with the different devices. These excellent Android smartphones aren’t listed in any particular order, and any listed here will provide you with above average battery life.

  1. Huawei Nova Plus

The Huawei Nova Plus is not a typical smartphone from the Chinese manufacturer. Its design is reminiscent of the Huawei G8. But its heart, the processor, doesn’t come from Huawei. For this fabulous mid-range device, Huawei has incorporated a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 accompanied by an Adreno 506 GPU. It has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal memory.

The 5.5-inch display has Full HD resolution. The camera quality is standard for the mid range, but its 3,340 mAh battery offers spectacular endurance. The Huawei Nova Plus can last up to two days with full performance.

  1. Huawei Mate 9

The trajectory of Huawei smartphones is clearly upward. From the Ascend G510 to the Mate 9, the brand has made a lot of progress. The Mate 9 has proved to be one of the best phones in the benchmark rankings, and in terms of battery, only the Nova Plus has been ahead of it. But numbers aside, we were able to test the Mate 9, and it lasts almost two days in real life without needing to be plugged in.

The Mate 9’s 4,000 mAh battery has quick charge capability, and its 4.5 V charger can boost the current up to 5 A, charging the device in about 100 minutes.

  1. Sony Xperia X Compact

This compact smartphone is able to outlast most flagships, with its 4.6-inch HD display and 720p resolution. With a powerful Snapdragon processor and Adreno 501 GPU, it performs well with games and daily activities.

The 2,700 mAh battery with its power saving modes is able to last two days. Even if you avail yourself of a performance boost, the X Compact can still last a full day.

  1. Sony Xperia XZ

Keeping with tradition, the new Xperia XZ offers great battery life, although it’s just a few hours less than the compact version. The XZ features a Snapdragon 820 processor and 3 GB of RAM.

With its 2,900 mAh battery, it is able to withstand one and a half days with battery saving mode enabled. If you want full performance, it will only last a full day thanks to the powerful processor.

  1. Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)

The Galaxy A5 (2017), Samsung’s renewed mid-range offering of the year, brings an enhanced design that evokes the fabulous S7 and resists water and dust thanks to its IP68 certification. The 5.2-inch Super AMOLED 2.5D screen has Full HD resolution.

The larger size allows it to accommodate a 3,000 mAh battery, compared to the A3 (2017). It comes out of the box with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, which features the famous optimized Doze mode for managing your battery – and it is soon to receive the update to Android Nougat.

  1. Lenovo Moto Z Play

This is the only Moto Z with headphone jack, which is located at the bottom. One of the strengths of the Moto Z Play is its 3,510 mAh battery, along with Motorola’s Turbo Power. The Moto Z Play is also compatible with all Moto Mods in the Moto Z range.