1. The more megapixels your camera has, the better the picture
Digital cameras employ an array of hundreds of thousands or millions of microscopic light sensors called pixels that transform a visual image into a pattern of electronic signals. The visual quality of a digital photograph is influenced by the number of pixels and their physical size. Very high pixel counts provide the high resolution necessary to capture fine details in a scene. But high pixel counts mean that individual pixels are very small, and small pixels produce much noisier images than larger pixels, especially when the lighting is weak. Thus, under typical lighting conditions, a camera with a 6 or 8 megapixel sensor might provide better photos than a camera with an 18 megapixel sensor. If you’re just posting photos online, almost any camera will work fine. For higher quality photos, select a camera with a large sensor and a high pixel count. Digital Photography Review offers an excellent explanation of pixel counts and resolution.
2. More bars on your mobile phone mean better service
The bars indicate signal strength, not the quality of available service. If many people in the same cell are calling, texting, going online or gaming, service may be intermittent, slow or even unavailable. You may have experienced this at an athletic event or at the mall, where there may be plenty of signal but a lot of people on their phones. And if you have teenagers in the house, you can expect to have terrible service no matter how many bars you have.
3. You shouldn’t use 3rd party chargers on your phone or tablet
This myth suggests that a 3rd party charger might somehow damage your phone or tablet. There are two issues here. First, the charger provided with a phone or tablet might provide more power than a third party charger and therefore charge more rapidly. The second issue is charger quality. Tests of original equipment chargers and those made by reputable manufacturers generally work just fine. Knock-off chargers made by unknown companies have a high failure rate. They are poorly designed and may use low quality components that can fail prematurely or even cause a fire.
//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 4. Leaving your phone plugged in destroys the battery
Modern smart phones and flip phones run on lithium-ion batteries and are advanced enough to stop charging when the battery is full. There’s no real risk of damaging the battery when you keep it plugged in after a 100% charge. But even when the battery is fully charged, the charger will draw a small amount of current. Therefore, unplugging the phone when it’s fully charge will save a bit of money. This also applies to all electronic equipment with rechargeable batteries or an “instant on” feature.
5. You should shut down your computer every night
You will save power if you shut down your computer when it’s not being used. You will also keep the cooling fan from sucking in still more dust. Another advantage is that rebooting your computer each morning will often remove annoying problems you may have noticed. But while there are benefits to shutting down your computer every night, it’s not absolutely necessary. Switching a computer on and off subjects its power supply and hard drive (assuming it’s a rotating platter) to stress. Leave your computer on, and it’s available for instant use. A good compromise that will save power is to simply set the monitor to switch off when the computer has not been used for 10 minutes or so. You can save a bit more power by setting the computer to sleep or hibernate when it hasn’t been used for a while. If your computer begins to slow down or become erratic, rebooting it might return it to normal operation. If not, it’s time for a malware scan.
6. Jailbreaking your Phone, iPod or tablet is illegal
“Jailbreaking” your phone is when you remove the hardware restrictions imposed by its operating system to make it compatible with software and downloads from other brands. It may sound illegal, given the term “jailbreaking,” but it’s perfectly legal. Jailbreaking may, however, void your warranty. Apple isn’t interested in fixing your phone if you’ve retrofitted it with a bunch of non-Apple compliant programs. There are plenty of illegal things you can do with your phone, but jailbreaking isn’t one of them.
7. Password protected networks are safe from hackers
No network can be assumed to be totally protected from hackers and their amazing variety of code-cracking tools. Even carefully composed passwords can be eventually cracked. If you use a hard-wired office network, assume that anyone on the network can potentially see anything on your computer. This is even truer for wifi networks. Wifi has become so ubiquitous that people routinely access the Web and their email in airports, hotels, restaurants and even planes and trains, all of which can be penetrated by a dedicated hacker. You can improve your protection by encrypting what’s on your computer and by using very strong passwords with upper and lower case letters and a variety of symbols, none of which should resemble a word. But the only way to completely protect bank account, bank and Social Security numbers is to never enter them online. Also, keep in mind that some hacks can block access to your computer. That’s good reason to keep a backup copy of everything on a removable drive kept tucked away in a separate location. While you can also back up to a cloud site, should that site go down or be hacked, you will still have your removable drive.
8. Using a cell phone at a gas station pump is a fire risk
Despite warning signs on gas pumps, there are no verified reports of a cell phones igniting gasoline vapor when a car is being refueled. Just think of the many people who have filled their tanks while talking on the cell phone without causing a fire. Of course a telephone conversation can be distracting, and that might slow you down and annoy anyone in line waiting to refuel at your pump. So maybe it’s best to leave your phone in the car while pumping gas. As for dangers at the pump, never smoke while refueling and don’t slide into your car seat while the gas is flowing to avoid static electricity sparks that might cause a fire.
9. Lemons can be used to charge your phone
Apparently, someone somewhere cut the charger cable for their phone and plugged in into a lemon to see what would happen. MacGyver science took over, and, voila, the phone was charged. The problem is that this method just doesn’t work. The wires immersed in lemon juice might produce only a small fraction of a volt, not nearly enough to charge a phone. Try it at home if you don’t believe me and if you don’t mind ruining a charger cable.
10. Cell phones cause cancer
Cell phones emit electromagnetic radiation in the form of non-ionizing, radio frequency waves. To date, the only known side effect of these waves on people is that they can generate a small amount of heat in the portion of the body closest to a phone that is in use. This is the operating principle behind microwave ovens, which generate considerably more powerful waves than those emitted by a cell phone. While dozens of studies have found no link between cell phone usage and cancer, at least to date, concerns have been raised about children, whose brains are not fully developed, using cell phones. One medical study found that a lengthy call will cause the side of the brain closest to the phone to metabolize more glucose than the opposite side of the brain. Any possible health effects from this finding are unknown, but it’s widely known that addicted cell phone users have tripped on sidewalks, walked into walls, collided with fellow cell phone users and even caused fatal car crashes. Other cell phone-related afflictions include poor attention span, eye strain, forgetting to feed the kids, neglecting your spouse, and addiction to cat videos.
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