4 Ways You're Damaging Your Laptop's Battery

June 23, 2022

Did You Know?

There are an estimated 3 million shipwrecks around the world, some dating back to thousands of years ago.

Hey there, hope you’re having a great Thursday so far!

Engineers from Intel and Apple are working on a new proposal that could make improve background blur in web browser video calls. Meanwhile, Microsoft is testing a new settings panel in Windows 11 that tells you when your apps access sensitive information, like cameras and microphones. Plenty of cool stuff in the pipeline, no matter which devices you use.

– Corbin

Are you taking proper care of the battery in your laptop? While chips are getting more efficient and battery life is increasing, avoiding a few mistakes can help extend your laptop battery health in the long term. Read More »

High gas prices can be a real bummer when traveling or even just on your daily commute. Finding a fuel-efficient route is great, but eventually you will need gas. You can use Google Maps to find the cheapest gas near you. Read More »

Setting up a smart home doesn’t have to be limited to the inside of the house. However, if you’re looking to set up smart plugs, you’ll need to be sure that they can survive the elements without shorting out.

Kasa’s Outdoor Smart Plug is just that. This plug has an IP64 weather-resistance rating and it can survive some rough conditions. Throw in compatibility with Alexa and Google Home, and you have an outdoor smart plug that’s perfect for most households.

Get it at Amazon →

Video calls, especially for work, are more common than ever. Intel, Google, Apple, and others are now working on a proposal to improve a much-used feature in web video calls: background blur. Read More »

Samsung Galaxy phones are notorious for having tons of features—whether you like it or not. That means there’s a very good chance there are some nifty things you don’t know about. Let’s fix that. Read More »

Using Google Sheets’ COUNTA and COUNTIF functions, you can count cells that contain any text, specific text, or partially matching text. This is a great way to find the non-blank cells in your spreadsheets, and we’ll show you how to use these functions. Read More »

The iPhone range now includes more sizes and price points than ever before. This might make it challenging to know which model to pick and what exactly the differences are. Let’s take a look at which iPhone is the best in 2022. Read More »

Big Steam sales can be a great way to save on games, but it’s not always a guarantee you’re getting the best deal on a given game during a given sale. Here’s how to ensure you’re getting the most for your money. Read More »

Welcome to the first GFN Thursday of summer! This week, the long-awaited Genshin Impact finally makes its way to the rest of us on NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW, plus seven more games from Steam and the Epic Games Store are available to buy and stream today on your computer, phone, tablet, and TV. Read More »

Don't force your programs to run well through sheer power; design them to fly on a variety of performance profiles. In The Art of Efficient Programming, you'll learn how to write programs that properly utilize CPU and memory resources while avoiding unnecessary computations, leading to leaner, meaner applications. You'll also understand how to measure performance and implement multithreading for optimal output.
Download your free copy today to get started.

In April, India passed a law that will severely curtail VPN activity in the country starting from June 27th, 2022. Why has the world’s largest democracy decided to follow the path set out by some of the world’s most repressive regimes, like Russia or China? More important still, will the new measures even work? Read More »

OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 has come as a shock to those who thought that artificial intelligence would never (or at least not quickly) start to infiltrate the realm of creativity. But is DALL-E 2 here to take artists’ jobs? Read More »

There’s no shortage of great options if you’re looking for free cloud storage. Plenty of companies will let you store several gigabytes in the cloud, and all you need to do is create an account. We’ve put together our five favorites. Read More »

Before June 2022, none of Apple’s chargers had more than a single USB port. That changed with the introduction of the 35W Dual USB-C Charger and the 35W Dual USB-C Port Compact Power Adapter. Unfortunately, as with many Apple products, you’ll pay a premium over more-powerful third-party chargers. Read More »

If you’ve ever tried to play a video and discovered that it’s incompatible with your device or player, you need a video format converter. These programs give your videos the correct file extension and let you tailor them to fit your needs. Find out which converter is right for you below. Read More »

Windows 10, by default, sends everything you search for in the Start Menu to their servers to give you results from Bing search — so you better make sure that you don’t type anything private into your own PC’s Start Menu. Or, you could just disable the Bing integration in the Start Menu. Read More »

Amazon Fire TV Sticks are popular streaming devices, and many TVs come with Fire TV OS as the main interface. Amazon just rolled out an update that hides an important feature, but you can get it back. Read More »

If you’d like to stop seeing someone’s posts in your news feed, unfollow them in your Facebook account. You can continue to be friends with them while still unfollowing them. We’ll show you how to do that using your desktop and your mobile phone. Read More »

Amazon Prime Day is coming up, and if you’re planning on buying anything, the $10 store credit that Amazon is offering to customers might come in handy. Here’s how to get it. Read More »

To add a new page anywhere in your Google Docs document, select an option from the Docs’ menu bar or use a keyboard shortcut. We’ll show you how to use both of these options in Docs on desktop and mobile. Read More »

Microsoft Outlook makes it easy to draw a line through your email text. On Outlook’s desktop app, you can use simple strikethrough as well as double strikethrough. On the web version, you only have the simple strikethrough option. Read More »

Summer is officially here, and that means it’s time for some summer savings on the gadgets you know and love. This week, Amazon’s getting a jumpstart on its own Prime Day deals, plus you’ll find huge discounts on Razer peripherals and accessories, Sony wireless earbuds, and more. Let’s get to it! Read More »