Weekend of September 20, 2024

Podcast: Play in new window | Embed

Tech News and Commentary

Dave and Chris discuss preserving James Earl Jones’ and William Shatner’s voices, Earth habitability assessment by a spaceship, Instagram’s teen accounts, and more.

---

Now, for all the Harry Potter fans and sports gamers, Bryan’s got the breakdown on a game that’s been turning heads. Is this the Wizarding World’s next big hit?.

Joe in Hazleton, Pennsylvania asked: “I have two questions. The first is about backing up. I use an external hard drive and I back up Windows every once in a while with a program called Macrium Reflect. It works well for me with my screen reader. A lot of other backup software doesn’t work well with the screen reader, at least it didn’t used to when I tried it a long time ago, so I like Macrium, the free version. Is it necessary to backup the whole operating system, or should I just backup certain things and when should I backup? The other question is about my iPhone 11. When I charge it, I keep it turned off, and with that, I get it charged up all the way to 100 percent. If I leave the phone on when I charge it, it only charges to 80 percent. Is it better to keep it off? Will I get longer battery life on the phone if I do that, or does it not matter?”

Joe, Well tackle your backup question first – it depends on what you want to back up. If you’re worried about just files then there’s no reason to bother with the operating system. You’ll be able to download Windows and start over if needed, and you can copy the files over from your backup after that.

However, if you want to preserve your settings, installations, etc then you’re going to want to do a full backup. A full backup can get you up and running from where you left off if anything happens and these days that’s arguably more important than before with so many things connecting to your computer from the cloud but not really living there.

As for your iPhone, if you want the phone to charge like it does when you keep it turned off, go to your Settings and under Battery turn off Optimized Battery Charging. If you do leave it on and let the phone manage the charging, it will try to spread out the charge cycle so that your battery last a longer time. On iPhones of that generation the battery was built to retain 80% capacity at 500 charge cycles, newer phones retain 80% for 1000 charge cycles, but both of them benefit from allowing the operating system to optimize the charging to avoid unnecessary charge cycles that will shorten the life of the battery.

When you participate on the show – anytime 24/7 – and we HEAR you with any consumer tech question, comment, help for another listener, tech rage or just share your favorite App these days … you could win prizes.

HumanTouch: Reflex PopUp Foot Massager – $200

Brondell: Pro Sanitizing Air Purifier – Removes dust, dander, pollen, smoke, and airborne viruses ($800 Value)

Targus: Ergonomic Foldable Bluetooth Antimicrobial Keyboard

ArmorSiren: The World’s first App controlled portable alarm security system

All CALLERS — using the AUDIO option on our Free App or 1-800-899-INTO(4686)  – automatically qualify to win prizes.

Audio archived for at least 6 months