Common tech knowledge debunked: 14 facts and myths

Experience, information, checks, and analysis are extraordinarily essential to with the ability to use computer systems and all IT at residence as easily and effectively as potential. But developments don’t stand nonetheless: We have reviewed 14 items of frequent tech information to see if they’re legitimate.

Further studying: The 6 biggest hardware myths exposed

1. Do gadgets intervene with one another on energy strips?

It is usually stated that you shouldn’t plug this or that machine into an influence strip along with others. Otherwise they’d “interfere” with one another. This is sort of at all times nonsense; the electromagnetic interactions are normally negligible. If a fuse is chargeable for a number of rooms, a number of home equipment are related to at least one circuit anyway.

However, the entire energy of all gadgets on an influence strip have to be taken under consideration. Currently, this should not exceed 3,000 watts, however that is solely a practical danger for heating home equipment. Coffee machine, kettle, toaster, fan heater, washer, and dishwasher must be plugged straight right into a wall socket, and parallel operation on a a number of distributor must be prevented. PCs, screens, televisions, and IT equipment, alternatively, aren’t prone to overload. A a number of energy strip with built-in surge safety is even advisable right here.

2. Should your Wi-Fi SSID be hidden?

This is a fable, as a result of hackers can shortly discover out the identify of a Wi-Fi radio community with the suitable instruments even when the SSID is about as “hidden” within the router. It is way more essential to guard your Wi-Fi community with a safe, sufficiently lengthy password and to make use of WPA3 as encryption.

Regardless of this, hidden SSIDs have the next penalties: Logging on for the primary time is extra cumbersome as a result of you need to sort within the identify of the community manually. In addition, there are a selection of small gadgets that won’t connect with an invisible Wi-Fi.

3. Is it okay to cost batteries on a regular basis?

Martyn Casserly

No, the lack of capability attributable to untimely charging affected the nickel-cadmium batteries that had been frequent up to now. With trendy lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries, the reminiscence impact not happens. Although batteries have typically change into much less delicate, fixed full discharging does injury them. A cost stage of between 20 and 80 % is taken into account to be light. So if potential, cost your gadgets earlier than the battery runs out utterly.

4. USB-C supposedly transmits every part

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Not in any respect, as a result of quite a bit is non-compulsory with USB-C. So a selected Type-C port is on no account an identical to others. Which features a tool and even particular person sockets help can solely be came upon by trying within the handbook or an prolonged product description. Because even the completely different and in precept standardized symbols are on no account used constantly by the producers.

It can be complicated that USB-C has the identical plug and socket form because the Thunderbolt interface, however each work utterly in a different way.

The present USB logos emphasize the core features of the Type-C interface. This ought to make it potential to acknowledge the pace instantly on the packaging in addition to on the connector.

5. Do you need to change your password usually?

No. Although there may be nothing mistaken with altering passwords recurrently, it’s tempting to make use of passwords which can be simple to guess. If you solely change one quantity at a time, the entry code is on no account safer. Much safer are sufficiently lengthy passwords with particular characters and numbers that you just handle with a password supervisor.

It’s additionally essential by no means to make use of the identical entry code for a number of on-line accounts. If one account is hacked, others are threatened on the similar time as a result of hackers use it to systematically check different accounts.

Further studying: Best password managers 2023

6. Does hibernation eat electrical energy?

No, however you need to watch out with the phrases: Often “hibernation” and the Windows choice “save energy” are confused.

So let’s begin initially: “Shut down” switches off the PC utterly. The mode referred to as “hibernation” by Microsoft saves the present session by writing the contents of the primary reminiscence to the onerous disk after which additionally switches off the facility to the pc. When it’s switched on once more, Windows doesn’t utterly reboot, however reads the RAM file from the information medium. This is quicker than restarting; furthermore, you proceed working precisely the place you left off earlier than.

This additionally applies to the energy-saving mode, however this retains the final Windows session within the RAM. This continually consumes some vitality: On a pocket book in battery mode, the battery is thus drained in the long term. Caution: Unsaved knowledge is due to this fact misplaced when the battery is empty.

Although hibernation mode and energy-saving mode begin up the pc quicker than after an actual switch-off, you must reinitialize your PC or pocket book each few days through “Restart.” The restart additionally solves many different issues as if by magic, on the pc in addition to on the smartphone.

7. The “private mode” within the browser is nameless

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Unfortunately, that is mistaken. In the so-called personal mode, the browser shops much less knowledge, however you might be on no account incognito on the web. Many on-line providers acknowledge your browser and thus additionally you through particular person fingerprints, i.e. through the distinctive mixture (“fingerprint”) of varied properties of your pc. Even using VPN or adblockers doesn’t stop this.

Fingerprinting is, nevertheless, undermined by anonymization and randomization strategies that manipulate the fingerprint in a focused, non-specific approach or continually change it. This is finished for the Chrome, Edge, or Opera browsers by the add-on Canvas Blocker, and for Firefox by the just about an identical extension CanvasBlocker. Manufacturers of safety software program specifically additionally provide particular instruments in opposition to fingerprints; for instance, Avast’s Secure Browser is free.

8. Is cable web nonetheless gradual within the night?

Internet entry through TV cable is a “shared medium,” just like using a radio cell in cellular telephony: The extra individuals or households share an entry level, the decrease the person bandwidth turns into. In the previous, the throughput within the cable community due to this fact dropped, particularly within the night hours when many individuals had been watching movies at residence or utilizing their computer systems.

In the meantime, nevertheless, the cable suppliers regularly improve their networks. A single node on a community can function many as 500 households. With speeds of 500Mbps to 1Gbps broadly out there, the elevated use within the night is hardly noticeable.

9. Is it protected to easily pull out USB sticks?

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USB sticks on the PC could merely be unplugged, so that you do not need to click on on “Safely remove hardware and eject medium” beforehand. Neither the stick nor the pc or system configuration will likely be broken. This can be ensured by the Windows commonplace setting for knowledge media “Quick Remove.”

One restriction, nevertheless, is that each one information on the stick have to be closed and no knowledge switch have to be in progress when eradicating the stick — in any other case knowledge could also be misplaced or broken. When copying massive quantities of information or with gradual USB sticks, guarantee that the Windows switch window is closed earlier than eradicating the stick.

10. Does third-party ink invalidate your printer’s guarantee?

The reply to this query is a transparent no — each with regard to the (voluntary) guarantee of the machine producer and with regard to the authorized guarantee of the vendor. To accomplish that, the producer or vendor must show a causal connection between the printer defect and the third-party ink or cartridge. If this actually exists, the ink or toner producer is responsible for the injury to the printer.

11. Chromebooks want a everlasting web connection

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It is true that Chromebooks, i.e. notebooks with Google’s Chrome OS working system, primarily use cloud providers. However, many duties can be carried out with out an web connection. The working system then caches all adjustments domestically and robotically synchronizes them later through the web with out you having to fret about it.

With providers which can be already built-in, comparable to Google Drive or Office, customers don’t discover something about this; with different apps, it will depend on the settings and features. It’s like on the smartphone, in spite of everything, the identical apps from the Play Store may be put in on the Chromebook. Just because the cell phone performs Spotify or Netflix content material offline, for instance, the Chromebook does the identical.

12. Mobile cellphone calls are inferior to a landline at residence

It was that the expertise of cell phone calls at residence had been usually worse than these over the mounted cellphone traces. This can nonetheless be true in each rural areas with poor cell phone protection and in densely built-up areas the place the radio connection may be interrupted by buildings or one’s personal 4 partitions. But wherever WLAN is obtainable, the issue may be solved.

All newer smartphones now help Wi-Fi calling. The know-how switches calls seamlessly forwards and backwards between cellular radio and WLAN. If the cell phone is just not solely related to the web through LTE, as traditional, but additionally through Wi-Fi, the connection robotically switches to the native Wi-Fi community.

Check within the telephony or SIM card settings of your smartphone whether or not the perform is switched on.

13. Standby: Is it nonetheless value switching off utterly?

Switching off through an influence strip is unquestionably worthwhile, however much less so than up to now. At a median of 0.75 watts per equipment in standby mode, the vitality per day provides as much as 18Wh. In steady operation, that is 6.5kWh per 12 months. With 15 home equipment — fairly a practical dimension in lots of households — the standby consumption provides as much as nearly 100kWh per 12 months.

For comparability: Without electrical water heating, a four-person family consumes between 3,000- and 4,500kWh per 12 months. The standby operation of 15 home equipment thus accounts for two or 3 %.

Note: “Computers” of all types, together with community onerous disks, have to be shut down first earlier than you turn them off onerous through an influence strip. Caution can be suggested with OLED TVs: The TV units may be broken with out energy. Many inkjet printers, alternatively, flush the nozzles each time they’re switched again on, consuming ink within the course of.

14. Are gold-plated cables higher?

IDG

You can simply spend a number of hundred {dollars} on audio cables with gold-plated contacts. HDMI cables with gold plugs additionally price many instances greater than comparable ones with out. But do the costly ones actually provide higher sound and sign high quality? The reply is: No, however…

All cables use copper wires, the steel conducts electrical energy significantly better than gold. Power and alerts are due to this fact transmitted equally properly with each forms of cable. However, and right here gold-plated contacts even have a bonus, the valuable steel doesn’t oxidize. The gold floor of the contacts due to this fact retains the conductivity excessive for years, whereas different metals change into lined with an oxide layer over time, particularly in humid environments. However, to totally exploit this benefit, either side of the contact have to be coated with gold, i.e. plugs and sockets.

This article initially appeared on pcwelt.de and was translated from German to English.