4K, Refresh Rate and the Numbers That Sell TVs

The sticker on a new television carries more numbers than a school report card. 4K, hertz, contrast ratios with far too many zeros. Only a couple of them change what you see from your sofa. What does 4K actually mean? …

Set Up a Device Your Child Can Actually Study On

The school has started sending homework as links, and someone has to open them. Suddenly the family is one device short every evening. Which device is enough for schoolwork? Start with what the school actually asks for, not with what …

What a Fitness Band Can and Cannot Measure

Someone in your family wears a fitness band. It tells them they slept badly, or that they did not walk enough. Most of us take those numbers at face value. But a band does not measure most of what it …

LED, QLED, OLED: What the Box Is Really Saying

You walk into the showroom to buy one television. You walk out confused by three sets of letters. Every sticker says LED, QLED or OLED, and the salesman says the expensive one is better. Let us take the words apart, …

Moving Your Number and Wiping the Old Phone Safely

Everything is on the new phone. Photos, chats, apps, all of it across. A few steps remain before the old phone is safe to hand over. This is the last of the five steps in a switch. The first four …

Five Minutes on Your Old Phone Saves the Switch

Your new phone arrives tomorrow and the old one still works fine. That old phone is quietly doing something important. It is holding the only copy of years of your life. The most common way people lose data when switching …

New Phone? Do These Five Things in This Order

The box is open and the new phone is charging. You want to start using it right now. That is exactly when people lose things they can never get back. A phone switch is not one job, it is five …

Is a Tired Battery Making Your Phone Feel Slow?

Sometimes the phone is not tired of you. Its battery is just tired. This is the last piece of the puzzle, and it is the one almost nobody checks. Why does a worn battery slow the phone down? A battery …

You Restart the Router, So Why Not the Phone?

The moment the Wi-Fi router acts up, we switch it off and on. The phone we just suffer. That is odd. Two boring little steps fix more slowdowns than any "cleaner" app ever will. Better still, the speed fixes are …

Why Is Your Phone Busy When You Are Not Using It?

Your phone is doing chores all day that you never asked for. The setting responsible is called Background App Refresh. It lets apps update themselves quietly, around the clock. Even the ones you open once a week. That is a …

A Full Phone Is a Slow Phone: Where the Space Goes

Before you spend thirty thousand rupees on a new phone, check this first. Most "slow phone" problems are really "full phone" problems. Free up the space and the speed comes right back. For free. Where does all my space actually …

Why Did Your Phone Get So Slow?

Before you blame your phone, read this. That sluggish, laggy handset in your hand is almost never worn out. It is usually just full and cluttered, and the slowdown is fixable. Often for free. Here is what is actually going …

Make Your Old Phone Feel New Again, For Free

Before you spend thirty thousand rupees on a new phone, wait. That laggy, sluggish handset in your hand is almost never finished. It is usually just full and cluttered. A handful of free tweaks can bring back most of its …

Ten Minutes to Make a Phone Easier to See

You have just handed a phone to a parent or a grandparent. Soon enough, the calls start. The text is too small, and apps have gone missing. Neither is their fault. The phone arrived set up for someone with perfect …

Hidden Phone Gestures That Save You Taps

Your phone can do a handful of things that nobody ever told you about. They are not in any manual and they do not appear on any menu. You either get shown them by a friend, or you go years …

Make Your Phone Help You Sleep, Not Steal Another Hour

You picked up the phone to check one small thing before bed. It is now past midnight and you are still scrolling. The light, the colour, the endless feed. Your phone is practically engineered to keep you awake. A few …

Build a Home Screen That Calms You Down, Not Up

You unlock your phone to check the time. Four minutes later you are inside an app you never meant to open. Your home screen is the first thing you see every time you pick the phone up. That happens dozens …

Is That Free Airport USB Charging Point Safe?

Your phone is about to die at the airport. There's a free USB charging point right there, and a boarding gate you can't leave. Tempting. It's still worth a second thought. What could go wrong with a charging port? That …

Your Wi-Fi Router Is Still On Its Factory Settings

You locked your phone. You set a password on your laptop. But your Wi-Fi router — the one device every bit of your home internet passes through — is probably still on its factory settings. That's the front door left …

Your Smart Speaker And Camera Never Switch Off

That smart speaker in the living room. The security camera pointed at the gate, and the video doorbell you set up for convenience. None of them ever switch off. They're listening, watching and quietly uploading to someone's cloud — all …

3 Reasons to buy the new iPhone

Every September, Apple puts on a keynote and we all quietly start doing sums. By the end of it, the perfectly good phone in your pocket suddenly feels old. Let us be honest about this one first. Do I need …

Turn your old TV into a Smart TV

Someone at dinner asks whether you have seen the show everybody is talking about. You hunt for it on your set-top box and it simply is not there. That is because it lives on the internet now, not on a …