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Don’t Run Out of Juice: How to Save Battery Life on Your iPhone

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Don’t Run Out of Juice: How to Save Battery Life on Your iPhone

It is powerful to exist with no smartphone nowadays. A lot of our lives are contained inside these tiny gadgets that we do not need them operating out of juice at an inopportune time. However due to Apple’s dedication to its proprietary Lightning cable (for now), there is not at all times a suitable charger on the prepared.

In our assessments, the iPhone 14 Professional Max supplied 19 hours of battery life, however what in case you have an older mannequin that is struggling to final all day? Regular put on and tear (and our personal dangerous habits) will degrade your battery over time. Apple has additionally been identified to throttle battery efficiency.

Apple’s $29 battery-replacement program is lengthy gone, however the Self Service Restore Retailer(Opens in a brand new window) sells alternative batteries you possibly can set up your self at round $70. In the event you would like to eke out a couple of extra months with out paying for a brand new battery (or iPhone), although, listed below are some issues to strive.


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1. The right way to Present Battery Proportion on iPhone

Earlier than you possibly can monitor your battery life, it is advisable to know precisely what you are taking a look at. The iPhone battery icon within the top-right nook of the display screen represents how a lot juice is left on the machine, but it surely’s not a really exact measurement of battery life.

You possibly can see the precise battery share left by opening the Management Middle, however if you’d like that data at a look within the cellphone’s top-right nook, it is advisable to activate the characteristic. Head to Settings > Battery and allow Battery Proportion. The battery icon will then present a quantity, making it simpler to watch battery life.

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(Notice that the iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 mini, and the iPhone 13 will want iOS 16.1 for the choice to point out the battery share.)


2. Activate Low Energy Mode

low power mode settings

Certainly one of your strongest weapons in opposition to battery drain is Low Energy Mode(Opens in a brand new window). With it enabled, your cellphone solely performs probably the most important of duties, so background actions like downloads and mail fetching are disabled. Low Energy Mode will routinely kick in when the battery falls under 20%, however it’s also possible to activate it manually to maintain your cellphone going for longer.

Head over to Settings > Battery > Low Energy Mode and toggle it on. You can even add Low Energy Mode to the Management Middle below Settings > Management Middle. When activated, the battery icon within the top-right nook will flip yellow. Notice that this mode will solely work in case your cellphone’s battery is under 80%.


3. Regulate Display screen Brightness

iPhone screen-brightness settings

The best hurdle in your struggle for extra batter life is your cellphone’s personal display screen. Smartphone shows are greater and brighter than ever, however they’re additionally homicide in your battery life. You possibly can’t actually get round this reality, however you possibly can flip down the brightness.

Manually regulate brightness ranges in Settings > Show & Brightness by utilizing the the slider bar. A slider can also be accessible through the Management Middle; press calmly on the brightness icon and transfer the slider down.

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Flip off auto-brightness to make sure your modifications stick. Navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Show & Textual content Dimension > Auto-Brightness and toggle it off. Your cellphone will not attempt to regulate its brightness based mostly in your present lighting scenario, which is able to keep away from conditions the place the display screen turns into brighter than it actually should be.


4. Handle Your Lock Display screen

auto-lock settings

Because the display screen is your battery’s enemy, you must also take into consideration managing when the cellphone’s show turns off routinely. You possibly can deal with this below Show & Brightness > Auto-Lock. In the event you are inclined to put your cellphone down with out locking it, set this to one thing decrease to provide the battery a break.

Launched with iOS 16 is the power to edit your iPhone’s lock display screen. As good of a characteristic because it might sound, widgets are enormous energy hogs, since they must always replace to offer helpful data. We suggest staying away from sophisticated wallpaper and widgets right here, so you are not overworking the battery.

New to the iPhone 14 Professional and iPhone 14 Professional Max, is the All the time-On show, which is able to present the time, widgets, and wallpaper whereas the cellphone is locked. Whereas Apple has taken steps(Opens in a brand new window) to verify it does not eat up an excessive amount of energy, it’s also possible to flip that off from Settings > Show & Brightness and disable All the time On.


5. Flip Off Location Providers

iPhone settings location

Location providers are useful for apps like Google Maps or Yelp, however these GPS pings taking place within the background can put on down a battery fast. You possibly can flip off location providers fully through Settings > Privateness & Safety > Location Providers and your cellphone will cease feeding location information to those providers.

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This, nonetheless, will make various helpful apps cease working. Your climate app will not know the place you might be for the most recent forecast, and you will not have the ability to ask Google for instructions based mostly in your present location. In the event you do not wish to go to the acute, Apple as an alternative lets you rein in particular person apps.

From the Location Providers settings display screen, you possibly can customise how most apps use location information: By no means, Ask Subsequent Time Or After I Share, Whereas Utilizing the App, or All the time. We suggest setting Google Maps to Whereas Utilizing the App, for instance, so the app will solely ping your location whenever you really want it.

In the event you want extra battery life, we additionally suggest shutting down the Discover My app should you’re sharing your location with family and friends. You are able to do this if you choose your title below Settings, then select Discover My > Discover My iPhone, then disable the swap subsequent to Discover My iPhone.


6. Flip Off Background App Refresh and Updates

iPhone settings app refresh

Once you shut an iOS app, it is going to hold operating for a bit till coming into a suspended state. Nonetheless, these apps can nonetheless verify for updates and new content material infrequently—a course of that may drain battery life. You possibly can disable Background App Refresh fully or simply for sure apps.

Navigate to Settings > Normal > Background App Refresh. Right here, you possibly can disable on an app-by-app foundation should you solely wish to minimize off refresh-heavy apps, like electronic mail or social media platforms. In any other case, choose Background App Refresh on the high of the display screen and set it to Off (or Wi-Fi if you wish to prohibit however not outright disable).

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Disabling background app refresh should have no impact on how the app works, but it surely would possibly take a second longer to floor new data whenever you return to them.

Equally, when your apps routinely replace infrequently, that course of can dissipate treasured battery life. It is usually a good suggestion to go away this characteristic on, since updates may also help apps run quicker and smoother, lowering the processing energy wanted to make them operate.

However you possibly can open Settings > App Retailer and disable App Updates if it is advisable to make each second rely. Whereas this characteristic is turned off, you have to to manually replace your apps within the App Retailer.

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7. Lower Down on Notifications

iPhone settings notifications

In case your display screen lights up with a preview of each notification you obtain, it is consuming energy with every textual content, breaking information alert, or Twitter comply with. Reducing down on these interruptions can save your battery and sanity. Open Settings > Notifications and select which particular apps ought to be allowed to ship notifications to your cellphone.

To disable these pings for a sure window of time, use the Focus characteristic below Settings > Focus to arrange restrictions for when notifications are allowed to come back by way of. Choose Focus Standing and allow Do Not Disturb.

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Another choice is to set specs from a single notification. In the event you see an provide you with a warning not want to see, swipe left on it and faucet Choices to inform the notification to be delivered quietly subsequent time. This implies it is going to go to your Notification Middle with out displaying in your lock display screen, enjoying sound, or displaying a banner or badge icon. You can even flip off notifications for this app fully.


8. Flip Off Wi-fi Providers

iPhone settings airplane mode

From Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and mobile information, your cellphone has many wi-fi options operating within the background. In the event you’re in an actual energy jam, you possibly can flip a few of these off with the intention to eke out just a bit extra juice earlier than the battery runs out. The quickest answer is to open Management Middle and press down on the menu choices within the high left to alter these options.

Faucet the airplane icon to place your machine in Airplane Mode, which turns off all of your cellphone’s mobile options. Calls and texts will not come by way of, however you possibly can nonetheless connect with Wi-Fi if obligatory for iMessages and different duties. You can even allow this in Settings; simply toggle it on. You may know it is activated by the airplane icon on the highest proper.

Wi-Fi does not do wonders in your battery should you’re not at present utilizing it. Your cellphone repeatedly searches for close by Wi-Fi networks, which is why the listing of accessible networks always modifications whenever you’re out and about. Faucet the Wi-Fi button to show it off or accomplish that from Settings > Wi-Fi.

Equally, Bluetooth and AirDrop are always seeking to join, however there isn’t any motive for them to be energetic always. Flip off these options within the Management Middle or open Settings > Bluetooth and Settings > Normal > AirDrop > Receiving Off, respectively, to show them off. Simply keep in mind to show these providers again on whenever you really want them.

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9. Kill Lively Listening

iPhone settings active listening

Your iPhone or iPad helps hands-free Siri, that means you possibly can say “Hey, Siri” and ask a query with out having to the touch your iPhone. However meaning the machine is at all times listening, awaiting your command (and utilizing up treasured sources within the meantime). In the event you do not use Siri that a lot, turning off energetic listening might assist with battery drain.

Navigate to Settings > Siri & Search, the place you possibly can disable the Pay attention for “Hey Siri” entry. You possibly can go away Press Aspect Button for Siri enabled, if you’d like the power to name Apple’s assistant with the push of a button. In any other case, you possibly can disable this feature too if you wish to keep away from unintentionally summoning Siri.


10. Purchase a Battery Case

mophie 401002830 Juice Pack Access - Ultra-Slim Wireless Battery Case -


Picture: mophie

In the event you nonetheless cannot handle to make it by way of the day with out recharging, contemplate a battery case. These can shield your cellphone whereas additionally offering additional energy. There are various choices(Opens in a brand new window) obtainable for contemporary iPhone fashions and older gadgets.

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Google DeepMind co-founder joins Microsoft as CEO of its new AI division

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Google DeepMind co-founder joins Microsoft as CEO of its new AI division

Microsoft has hired Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman. In a post on X, Suleyman announced that he’s joining Microsoft as the CEO of a new team that handles the company’s consumer-facing AI products, including Copilot, Bing, and Edge.

Suleyman will also serve as executive vice president of Microsoft AI and join the company’s senior leadership team that reports directly to CEO Satya Nadella. Suleyman co-founded the AI lab DeepMind in 2010, which was later acquired by Google in 2014.

DeepMind has remained a pioneering AI force within Google. However, Suleyman hasn’t been part of the division in many years. He was placed on leave in 2019 over controversy surrounding some of the projects he led, according to a report from Bloomberg. The Wall Street Journal later reported Google and DeepMind opened an investigation into Suleyman over complaints he bullied staff.

After getting placed on leave at DeepMind, Google announced it had hired Suleyman as vice president of AI product management and AI policy. Suleyman left Google in 2022 to co-found the startup Inflection AI.

In addition to hiring Suleyman, Microsoft is also bringing on some of Inflection AI’s employees, including co-founder Karén Simonyan, who will serve as the chief scientist of the consumer AI group. Kevin Scott will remain as Microsoft’s chief technology officer and executive vice president of AI.

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“I’ve known Mustafa for several years and have greatly admired him as a founder of both DeepMind and Inflection, and as a visionary, product maker, and builder of pioneering teams that go after bold missions,” Nadella says in a memo to employees published by Microsoft. “We have a real shot to build technology that was once thought impossible and that lives up to our mission to ensure the benefits of AI reach every person and organization on the planet, safely and responsibly.”

Microsoft has poured billions into its partnership with OpenAI and recently struck a deal with AI startup Mistral. The formation of a new AI team doesn’t mean Microsoft has forgotten about these partnerships. Microsoft says it “will continue to build AI infrastructure inclusive of custom systems and silicon work in support of OpenAI’s foundation model roadmap,” as well as “build products on top of their foundation models.”

Update March 19th, 1:38PM ET: Added context about Suleyman’s time at DeepMind.

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England's first convicted 'cyber-flasher' sentenced to 5 years

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England's first convicted 'cyber-flasher' sentenced to 5 years

England’s first convicted cyber-flasher was sentenced Tuesday to 5 1/2 years in prison.

Nicholas Hawkes, 39, a convicted sex offender who sent unsolicited photos of his genitals to a girl and a woman, was the first person in England and Wales convicted of violating the Online Safety Act.

Hawkes admitted at an earlier hearing that in February he sent a photograph or film of genitals with intent to cause alarm, distress, or humiliation.

SCAMMERS ARE USING FAKE NEWS, MALICIOUS LINKS TO TARGET YOU IN AN EMOTIONAL FACEBOOK PHISHING TRAP

The woman who received the photos in February took screenshots and reported him to police.

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Convicted sex offender Nicholas Hawkes was the first person in England and Wales convicted of violating the Online Safety Act. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)

Hawkes was on the sex offenders register after being convicted last year of exposure and sexual activity with a child under 16. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to breaching both a community order and suspended sentence he had received for the earlier offense.

The cyber-flashing law that went into effect Jan. 31 makes it an offense to send unsolicited sexual images by social media, dating apps, or technologies such as Bluetooth or Airdrop.

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Nuclear weapons in space are bad news for the entire planet

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Nuclear weapons in space are bad news for the entire planet

Last month, several news outlets reported that Russia could be planning to deploy a space-based nuclear weapon, alarming, well, pretty much everyone.

US policy hawks, space environmentalists, and anyone with a lingering memory of Cold War-era fears over nuclear annihilation were all sounding the alarm about the threat posed by a Russian nuke in space. 

As scary as the prospects sound, the US government has assured people that the weapon doesn’t necessarily pose a threat to people on the ground. Instead, it would target other objects in space, like the satellites used by the US military for communications and other operations.

But that struck some as cold comfort, especially given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unpredictability. And Putin has indicated that putting a nuclear power unit in space is a priority for the country.

In the long term, defense experts warn that having a nuclear weapon positioned in space could pose a threat to life on Earth by eroding international relations and space law. From clouds of space debris that could cut off access to space to the development of weapons that could launch from space to hit targets on the ground, space-based nukes have the potential to impact everything — and everyone. 

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Anti-satellite weapons already exist — but not nuclear ones

No country has ever used an anti-satellite weapon against another country, but several countries have destroyed their own satellites in demonstrations of their military capabilities — including the US, Russia, China, and India. 

These tests are not without controversy: a 2021 Russian test of an anti-satellite weapon, for example, drew condemnation from NASA for creating debris that threatened astronauts on the International Space Station (including Russian cosmonauts). Since then, a UN panel has called for a ban on the testing of such weapons and several European Union nations and the US have pledged not to perform destructive tests. 

A nuclear weapon in space would cause much more destruction than previous anti-satellite weapons tests, explained Andrew Reddie of the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab, as existing space-based weapons typically destroy just one satellite at a time. In the age of huge satellite constellations such as Starlink, knocking out a single satellite is more of an annoyance than a major threat.

To destroy satellites at scale, you need a different weapon, such as a directed energy weapon based on the ground. Or, you could use a nuclear weapon in space, which creates not only shock effects but also heat, radiation, and an electromagnetic pulse — giving it the ability to take out or impair entire networks. 

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A nuclear weapon in space would cause much more destruction than previous anti-satellite weapons tests

International laws protecting space

The best response the international community has had to date in restricting the stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons is international law. When it comes to space, the key piece of legislation is the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, of which Article IV prohibits placing nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit.

Detonating a weapon in space would be unprecedented and could run afoul of international rules barring the use of indiscriminate weapons on civilians or civilian objects.

“It seems to be that any kind of destruction of something in space is an indiscriminate weapon, and indiscriminate weapons are prohibited, and the use of indiscriminate weapons are a war crime,” said Christopher Johnson, professor of law at Georgetown University.

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However, this assumes that satellites are being destroyed by a kinetic impact. It might be possible to disable or jam satellites in another way, such as using an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP. Some reports have suggested that Russia is developing an EMP anti-satellite weapon rather than a nuclear one. If that could be done in a way that doesn’t create a debris field, that may not contravene the international law because it would no longer be a weapon of mass destruction or indiscriminate in its effects.

With the current situation, “We don’t know what is being threatened,” Johnson said and pointed out that the details matter a lot here and that Russia is capable of a very close reading of the relevant laws to stay within them. 

Detonating a weapon in space would be unprecedented and could run afoul of international rules

The cascading debris problem

The reason that the use of weapons in space could be considered indiscriminate is because of the debris field they create. Destruction of objects in space creates large pieces of debris, which are hazardous but relatively easy to track. Where it gets dangerous is the increasing number of medium and small pieces of debris, which are too small to be trackable but are still traveling at high enough speeds to do tremendous damage to other objects or even people in space.

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“A fleck of paint the size of your thumbnail can go through most spacecraft. Traveling at a very high velocity — 18,000 mph — it’ll go right through it,” said space debris expert Vishnu Reddy of the University of Arizona. 

A serious collision in orbit could create a field of small debris pieces that would quickly collide with other satellites, creating a cascade. At a critical mass, each collision creates more debris, which creates more collisions, which creates more debris, until an entire orbit becomes difficult or impossible to access. 

This scenario, known as the Kessler syndrome, could cut off access to space for generations: from making rocket launches more difficult, dangerous, and expensive to, at worst, making any kind of space travel completely impossible for decades and shutting humanity off from the stars.

This concept of the syndrome was first proposed in the late 1970s, when there were optimistic predictions that the Space Shuttle might fly as often as once per week. That never came to fruition, so in the intervening decades, there was less concern about the possibility of a cascading debris event.

But now, with the pace of both government and private launches ramping up to the highest levels ever, space debris is once again on everyone’s radar, Reddy said: “The old fear has come back.”

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“A fleck of paint the size of your thumbnail can go through most spacecraft.”

Vulnerable orbits

The most useful orbits around the planet are getting increasingly crowded, and even if humanity stopped launching things into space tomorrow, the debris already in orbit would continue to collide and make the problem worse. 

Over the long term, if this problem isn’t addressed, it could spiral into a Kessler syndrome, as the situation can go from bad to catastrophic quickly. “The timeline for the cascading collisional scenario is very short,” Reddy said. “We’re talking anywhere from hours to days to weeks, not months to years to decades.”

The use of a nuclear weapon in orbit, depending on its size and in which orbit it is detonated, could kick off such a cascading scenario. But this isn’t exclusive to nuclear weapons. It’s possible that a bad actor destroying a single, carefully chosen satellite could create a cascade, Reddy said, if they picked a vulnerable target. 

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In geostationary orbit, for example, there are only so many slots available for satellites in the ring around the Earth’s equator. That makes the slots in high demand, as they are a limited resource. And this scarcity is compounded by the fact that it’s very difficult to remove debris from an orbit so distant, at over 20,000 miles from the Earth’s surface. If these slots are blocked by debris, it could cut off functionality for systems like communications satellites, weather satellites, and navigation satellites. 

“That would be really, really bad,” Reddy said. “One satellite explosion big enough would be enough to destroy a lot of assets in geostationary orbit.”

Fears for the future

Although it’s unlikely that any actor would launch a nuclear weapon in space with the specific intention of kicking off a cascading debris effect, it might happen as a consequence of trying to destroy a particular military system. But the debris isn’t the only thing that has experts worried.

Security risk expert Andrew Reddie questioned what it would take to convert the technology for a nuclear anti-satellite weapon into a platform that could deploy nuclear weapons from space to targets on the ground. This would require a reentry vehicle, for example, which doesn’t exist yet but could theoretically be constructed based on existing technology. Nukes launched from space would give less warning time than those launched from the surface, threatening thousands or even millions of people.

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It’s not that the deployment of nukes in space is necessarily likely, with no current indication that Russia is developing such a weapon. But it does show how nuclear weapons in space could shift the geopolitical landscape dramatically and why reports of potential space-based nuclear weapons have drawn such condemnation.

“The old fear has come back.”

A matter of global governance

Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied any plans to develop a nuclear anti-satellite weapon and has said that Russia is against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space. And experts agree that Russia takes pride both in its space program and in its role in international governance as a permanent member of the United Nations, though the invasion of Ukraine has shaken the country’s international status and resulted in the suspension of joint space missions with other space agencies. 

For the Russians to develop or deploy such an anti-satellite weapon “would undermine their diplomatic efforts,” Johnson said. Russia has a global leadership role in space governance and was a key negotiator in the Outer Space Treaty, and going against that would be self-undermining. “They take their role seriously,” Johnson said.

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There is also international pressure from beyond the US and Europe. Even China, which has a space program that is notably separate from other nation’s space programs and does not participate in international projects like the International Space Station, has emphasized that it is against the proliferation of weapons in space. US government representatives are trying to recruit China and India in discouraging Russia from pursuing nuclear anti-satellite technology. 

Deploying a weapon in space would be against Russia’s own self-interest, experts argue. Spreading a debris field across an entire orbit limits the ability of everyone to access space, including those who fired the weapon.

However, those effects are not necessarily symmetrical. “The Americans rely on space far more than both Russia and China, so in most domains, if you were to degrade it for everybody, that would be a problem,” Reddie said. “But if you’re degrading space, it’s going to asymmetrically affect the Americans. And the Russians know that.”

This raises the question of what the global consequences might be if — or when — any nation chooses to use a space-based weapon and whether the existing international legal structure could respond to that.

Space debris expert Reddy compared firing such a weapon to flipping a chess board when you’re losing a game: “It’s no longer about winning. It’s ‘I’m losing, so nobody wins.’”

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