Tip of the Day: How to Prevent Others from Accessing Private Information from Your Lock Screen

By Sarah Kingsbury

Siri is an awesome time saver. Want to view your most recent calls, text someone, get directions, or post to Facebook? Just ask Siri. You can even do all this from your lock screen. The problem is, so can anyone else. If your settings allow for it, anyone can access your call history, send a tweet, or get directions to a contact’s home from your lock screen just by bringing up Siri and asking.

If the idea of anyone being able to access this information from your lock screen freaks you out, go to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode, enter your passcode, and scroll down to Allow Access When Locked and toggle Siri off.

You can still ask Siri to sort your call history for you, tweet, and send messages, as well as do a host of other things, just not from the lock screen.

Top image credit: cunaplus / Shutterstock.com

The 8 Commandments Of Group Texting

by Alexis Kleinman

I’m in a lot of group texts. I have one with my parents, one with my college friends, one with my improv team, and various others that pop up to plan parties and get-togethers. Group texts have the ability to brighten or ruin a day.

1. Thou shalt not text all night

It’s not uncommon for me to wake up with 60 texts, thanks to all of the group texts I’m a part of (humblebrag, I know). This is too many texts for one person to reasonably deal with first thing in the morning.

I know you’re not supposed to look at your phone immediately upon waking up, but let’s be real. My iPhone is my alarm, and it’s the first thing I see in the morning. So when I wake up to a billion texts, it starts my day on a stressful note. It’s not ideal.

Consider stopping the chit-chat around midnight, for the sake of your friends.

2. Thou shalt not leave a group text without announcing it

Nothing hurts my feelings as much as someone leaving a group text I started. I totally understand why you would leave and save yourself from an onslaught of texts that aren’t relative to your life, but it still hurts. I SEE WHEN YOU LEAVE! We all (those of us using iOS, that is) see when you leave, and it hurts.

If you’re going to bounce out of my carefully crafted text thread, please explain yourself and apologize. Otherwise, just let the texts roll in and ignore when necessary. Do you really want to make people sad just because you’re a little inconvenienced?

3. Thou shalt keep thy phone on silent

Being on a group text means you’re getting a hell of a lot of texts. To be a good Samaritan to those around you, please keep your phone on silent. It’s very annoying when someone’s phone is constantly dinging or buzzing because they’re getting a text a minute.

4. Thou shalt not judge those with different phones

Some people don’t have smartphones. Some people’s phones can’t group text properly. It’s nobody’s fault. Don’t berate people for responding to one person at a time or being unable to respond at all.

5. Thou shalt not rush

If you send too many texts in rapid succession, they’ll probably start to get confusing for everyone. It’s hard to keep up if there are a lot of people texting at once, and there are inevitably many trains of thought and conversations happening at once.

To keep confusion to a minimum, let a moment or two pass between texts. Your friends will thank you.

6. Thou shalt not lurk

What’s the point of being in the group if you’re not going to participate? We see you lurking. If you’re not participating, we assume you’re judging, and we don’t need your judgment around here.

7. Thou shalt mute the conversation

Rather than leaving the text thread altogether, just mute it if you have the option. It doesn’t hurt anyone’s feelings and it will stop your phone from going nuts if you’re not interested in being part of the conversation. On iPhones it’s called “Do Not Disturb.”

Just mute everyone while you’re in a meeting and un-mute when you’re ready to chat. It can be your little secret.

8. Thou shalt not sext

Nobody wants to see your dingaling. Even the person you’re currently dating probably doesn’t want your dingaling showing up on their phone, and your friend group DEFINITELY doesn’t want to see it. Keep it in your pants.

That is, unless, you’re in a mutually-agreed-upon sexting orgy. In that case, let your freak flag fly.

Polish Your Selfies Like A Pro

by Natasha Lomas

 Generation selfie might be flirting with livestreaming apps but that doesn’t mean it’s abandoned its primary love affair with lensing and filtering shots of its own face. God no. How else would it continue injecting the required expressiveness across its social feeds?

And so public places remain awash with phone-holding folk all duck facing and selfie-sticking — as they attempt to procure le visage juste du jour. Just imagine how much more gurning into a lens is going on in private.

Really this is sweating toil for very fleeting fancy. Especially when the end result is mutable pixels. Truly the digital selfie is an entirely moveable feast. Just add that hipster filter, or run it through that slimming algorithm, and so on.

For those wanting to get even more pro about how they polish their selfies, a newly launched iOS app called Relook (priced at a hefty $3.99 — but hey, what price vanity?) offers an extensive range of mobile-friendly facial correcting tools — from skin smoothing to blemish correction to teeth whitening — all designed to work with inexpert finger swipes on a touchscreen, rather than requiring specialist image editing software knowledge. (So again, this is mobile as the driver for overhauling overly complex user interface design.)

Although it can be used purely on mobile, the app also supports file exports to Photoshop (with full layer data) — so is aiming to appeal to image editing pros too, as well as anyone who wants their selfie to look a bit less photorealistic.

It’s extremely easy to use — and the results appear more than passable for the disposable currency of the socially shared selfie (although proper Photoshop pros may not be so impressed when they dig into the detail).

In the same way that Snapseed made high end image post-processing accessible to anyone with a smartphone, via easy-to-use mobile tools, Relook is aiming to repeat the trick fully focused on selfie editing. And we know how enormous that market is. Call it the democratizing of looking unrealistically good.

Remember kids: the camera never lies; it’s just a matter of how you manipulate light and shade. Aka: truth on the Internet is (increasingly) relative.

Android Phones – Your Info Stays On It Even After Reset

If you recently sold your old Android phone, chances are your text messages, emails, pictures and Facebook key are still in there, even if you wiped its memory clean.

A New study by computer researchers at the University of Cambridge shows that “factory reset” — at least on Android devices — doesn’t actually erase everything. Researchers tested 21 phones made by Google (GOOGL, Tech30), HTC, LG, Motorola (MSI) and Samsung (SSNLF). In every case, they were able to recover text messages, Google account credentials and conversations on messaging apps. A few emails remained on the device 80% of the time.

Also, the special app “tokens” that let you access your Facebook (FB, Tech30) and other social media accounts remained on the device.

 And sometimes, devices don’t properly wipe the special part of your phone that stores all your pictures and videos — at all.

 The devices affected by this include the HTC One, HTC Sensation XE, Motorola Razr I, Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Galaxy S2, Samsung Galaxy S Plus and others.

 Researchers said the Google Nexus 4 performed the best — but it still had issues.

 Each phone had a different set of problems. For example, the HTC One didn’t wipe its internal SD card (where pictures are stored) by erasing it through the phone’s “settings” section, even though that’s what HTC says you should do. Instead, you have to go through the “recovery” section.

Part of the blame lies with Google, which makes the Android software that runs all these phones. But the phone makers are also at fault, because of bad design and terribly slow upgrades and software updates, researchers told CNNMoney.

If you’re determined to sell your old phone, there’s no way to be sure your data is completely gone.

Manually deleting every photo, message and app doesn’t actually work. Hitting “delete” doesn’t really destroy that file on your phone, because flash memory — the type these phones use — is notoriously difficult to erase.

Another approach is to encrypt everything on your phone with a passcode. But then how will you sell your phone?

“This can be desperately complicated,” said Ross Anderson, a Cambridge engineering professor who worked on the study.

Per Thorsheim, a cybersecurity expert in Norway, offered a different, more brutal approach.

“Don’t hand off your old phone. Smash it,” he advised.

Google didn’t respond to questions for this story. The company normally suggests trying a combination of things: remotely wiping the phone as if it were stolen, hitting “factory reset,” and updating to a new version of Android that allows for encryption with a passcode.  But even that’s not 100% reliable, researchers say.

Fortunately, Google does offer an option to protect your Google-related stuff (like Gmail, Drive documents and maps). You can open Gmail, head to the Google dashboard and “revoke” that device’s access to your Google account.

Review: Aircharge Qi wireless charging case for iPhone 6 (and 5/5s)

Written by: BEN LOVEJOY

image: https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/aircharge-4.jpg?w=704&h=294

As a founding member of the Wires Are Evil club, I’ve been waiting impatiently for wide-area wireless charging, where any device on a desk or within a certain area of a room is wirelessly charged. That still seems a way off yet.A good halfway house would be inductive charging powerful enough to work through the thickness of a desk, so your charging pads sit out of sight on the underside of the desk and your devices charge as soon as you put them down on the right place on the desk. Sadly today’s wireless charging standards are too weedy to work through even the thinnest of desks.

If you want wireless charging today, then, you’re going to have to have a visible wire to a charging pad, and place your device on that. Apple has so far limited wireless charging to the Apple Watch, but if you want it for your iPhone, you can buy a wireless charging case that allows you to use any compatible wireless charging pad. We’ve reviewed a number of these over the years, and I thought it was about time to try one for the iPhone 6 …

Look & feel

The Aircharge Wireless Charging Case for the iPhone 6 (to give it its full, rather lengthy, name) looks like a relatively standard ABS plastic case. From the front of the phone, there’s nothing to suggest it’s in any way different from a hundred other plastic cases out there bar the fact that it has a little extra depth at the bottom.

image: https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/aircharge-2.jpg?w=704&h=391

No one would describe it as having a premium look or feel, but neither does it feel especially cheap by plastic case standards. It’s solid and unobtrusive.

It does also add a little thickness to the phone, though nothing like as much as early incarnations of wireless charging cases did.

image: https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/aircharge-3.jpg?w=704&h=300

In use

The case has two parts: the main which extends to just above the top of the iPhone screen, and a ‘cap’ that clips in to close the case. You slide the phone into the case, docking with the Lightning plug embedded in the bottom, than snap the top cap in place.

image: https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/aircharge-5.jpg?w=704&h=409

That done, your iPhone can now be placed on any Qi-compatible wireless charging mat and it will automatically charge. There’s no app needed: as far as the iPhone is concerned, it has just been plugged into a standard Lightning cable.

I tested it with Aircharge’s own charging pad. Positioning isn’t crucial – so long as the case is somewhere on the pad, the phone charges. The pad displays a green LED when in standby, and turns blue when in use. All very simple.

The charge rate is slower than plugging directly into a Lightning cable, but in my testing it kept the phone topped up and did a full charge overnight.

There are a couple of usability issues. First, the edge of the casing is quite thick. Good for protection, not quite so good for operating the buttons. The power and volume buttons are just slightly awkward, while using the mute switch is really quite fiddly. I would say the buttons are no big deal, but you’d quickly find it annoying if you use the mute switch frequently.

Second, while putting the phone into the case is simple, removing it is just a touch fiddlier. You need to get a fingernail into the gap between the two pieces to pull them apart. That done, it slides apart easily.

image: https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/aircharge-1.jpg?w=704&h=352

Conclusions

Wireless chargers aren’t, in my view, any neater than a wired dock. You’ve still got a visible wire, and you still have to put your phone in the right place.

But it is a little slicker. I think the real benefit is for someone who is office-based but spends a lot of time away from their desk. If you keep your phone on charge when you’re sitting at your desk, then there’s a minor hassle involved in plugging/unplugging each time; simply putting your phone down on the pad and picking it up again is a worthwhile improvement.

For those people, if you can live with the plastic case, I think Aircharge will remove some of those minor everyday hassles and justify the $80-ish all-in cost of case plus pad.

The Aircharge Wireless Charging Case for the iPhone 6 costs $37.49 – or $30.99 for the iPhone 5/5S version. The Aircharge Qi Travel Charging Pad costs $43.49. All are available from MobileFun. There are a wide range of compatible charging pads available on Amazon.

Yahoo Researchers Use A Phone’s Touchscreen To Scan The Ear Like A Fingerprint

by Greg Kumparak

What if your phone could let you — and only you — answer an incoming call, no thumb print/PIN/swipe gesture required? Instead of a finger, it’d gauge the shape of your ear; instead of a fingerprint sensor, it’d use the touchscreen your phone already has built-in.

That’s the idea behind Bodyprint, a new concept out of Yahoo’s research labs.

 Built by researchers Christian Holz, Senaka Buthpitiya, and Marius Knaust, Bodyprint is designed to utilize a number of different body parts as biometric markers in different use cases. It’ll recognize your ear, as mentioned, but it can also identify you from a glance at your palm, the knuckles of a fist bump, or your grip around the edge of the screen when tightly grasping the device.

If it can sense all of these things, why not just use the screen to read your fingerprint? The short answer: the sensor resolution on current smartphone touchscreens isn’t high enough for something as small as a lone fingerprint. Give it a bit more real estate to analyze, though, and it’ll work just fine.

Most of the time, at least. The obvious fear is that such a mechanism wouldn’t be accurate enough, thereby allowing people with vaguely similar ears/palms/what-have-you past the lock screen. However, the authors of the paper are claiming that it let only the right person in 99.52% of the time.

 The catch? It does so by also turning the right person away fairly frequently — the algorithm errs on the side of caution, pinning the false rejection rate at 26.82%*. If your phone turned you away roughly 1 out of 4 times you tried to answer a call, I dont imagine anyone would keep said phone very long. The test group was also relatively small — just 12 users were battletesting the accuracy.

(* this rejection rate was across all of the different possible authentication markers; if only the ear is being used as a marker, the false rejection rate drops to 7.8% or 1 in 13.)

With that said, it’s the very definition of early days for the concept. Smartphone fingerprint readers were awful for years and years — only in recent days did they get good enough that they’re anything but frustrating.

This isn’t the first time the members of this team have used peculiar things to identify people: back in 2012, Holz used a Kinect to identify people standing around a Surface touchscreen table based on their shoes.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Is The New Hotness

by John Biggs

The smartphone to beat this season is the Galaxy S6 Edge. It’s slim, stylish, and powerful, a mashup between the previous Galaxy S series with the original iPod Touch. It’s well-made and unique, a combination rarely found in cellphones these days and it is as far from the Galaxy S5 as the T-1000 was from the original Terminator. In short, it’s pretty cool and probably the only S6 – the other being the non-curved standard model – I’d buy.


The Edge Case

This review is primarily about the S6 Edge. Out of the two phones released by Samsung at MWC the Edge most deserves to be called a flagship – a device that shows the best of what the company has to offer. While the “standard” S6 is solid, usable, and handsome, I think the Edge is the real winner here. Why? First off the design is unique and unique to Samsung. It is the one that you will notice and it feels great in the hand. The standard S6 is another solid slab and although the size difference is minuscule you can truly feel the difference. The Edge disappears in the pocket while the S6 is just another smartphone.

Everything in the S6 is available in the Edge. Both run a Exynos 14nm 64-bit Octa Core processor and both come in 64 and 128GB variants (you can get the S6 in 32GB.) Both have a built-in IR blaster for changing channels on your television, a usable heart rate monitor that doubles as a flash, acceptable front and back cameras, and a beautiful 5.1-inch 2560 x 1440 pixel Super AMOLED display that Samsung uses to excellent effect. Everything about the phone is smooth – from the pixel-free screen to the lush colors to the animations and transitions. This is Samsung kicking out the stops.

 The Good

Those familiar with modern Android won’t be surprised by everything the S6 has to offer. It’s more of the same but better. NFC payments are on the table, where available, as is fingerprint recognition. The processor and 3G of RAM make things snappy and Samsung’s Milk services are built in to supply music and video. SHealth, Samsung’s health offering, can measure your steps and take your pulse. They pre-bundled Hancom Office on board in case you wanted to check out some spreadsheets on your flight.

The S6 Edge is just good. It has great battery life – it’s run for about 1 day on a charge with heavy use and lasted about two days on standby. This time will degrade with use, however, so expect about 18 hours of firm usage, less if you’re watching video or browsing a lot. Samsung has truly streamlined Android notifications and made them pleasing to swipe through and read. The lock screen is eminently useful thanks to a little list of icons under the notifications that show you what you have in your queue. A button on the right side wakes the phone up from sleep and there are volume buttons on the left side. That’s it. The rest of the phone is nearly featureless except for a little slot for the SIM card and the iPhone-like bottom face.

 

In terms of size the S6 is just right. While I’m honestly used to a bigger phone these days – the Note or the 6 Plus are my go-to devices – this is phone is a great size and, because it is amazingly slim, it fits the hand and pocket well. I never expected a Samsung device to look this good and feel this premium but it’s 2015 and they finally pulled it off.

The Bad

A few bugs popped up in my testing. First, I found the fingerprint sensor to be useless.

 While the enrollment process for the fingerprint sensor was surprisingly easy (and Apple-like with a little print that filled in as you put down your finger), using it was surprisingly hard. I enrolled a thumb that I use regularly on the iPhone with no issues but try as I might I couldn’t unlock the phone with a simple press. I turned off fingerprint recognition and used a standard PIN while I was testing.

The S6 is also missing an SD card slot and a removable battery. I find this fact quite ironic as, for years, Samsung proponents have held up these two features as must-have items. I would argue that the fast charging system, acceptable battery life, and usability should assuage your grief over a non-removable battery and I also suspect those who need more storage space will be happy just getting a phone with more memory rather than swapping in fingernail-sized SD cards. I could be wrong, but them’s the breaks.

 The lack of waterproofing is a bit harder to swallow. Water fastness, for the most part, was a killer feature for the last Galaxy. What compelled Samsung to add it is anyone’s guess but I know it has saved number of phones after a trip to the drink. There are far more important things they could have left out but I know that the waterproofing was a fan favorite. You might also be annoyed by the wartish rear camera which sticks out quite prominently from the glossy white back. I would be concerned that it – along with the thin metal edges – would be a point of impact while tooling around with this device. I’m also concerned that a case – and I haven’t seen a case on this phone yet – could hide a lot of what makes this phone beautiful. It is, in fact, the first phone that I would honestly say shouldn’t be hidden inside a case. Here’s hoping the Gorilla Glass panels survive abuse.

Otherwise the S6 Edge is nearly perfect. The pre-installed bloatware – mostly carrier specific software – is acceptable and easily removed and the UI shows just how polished Android can be. The phone is pleasant to use, fun, and definitely worth a look.

The Bottom Line

Compared to the S6 the Samsung S5 seems like a fever dream. Designed to please all the people all of the time, Samsung poured everything they could into their previous model, resulting in something that, in the end, hit their profits. The S6 is Samsung at its finest. It is a phone that speaks to a consumer looking for a premium product and priced accordingly. Would I also recommend the standard S6? Given that the edge costs $100 more both off-contract ($650 vs $750) and on-contract ($200 vs $300) you should probably let your wallet be your guide. The phones are functionally identical but the features and value truly stands out in the Edge. It’s your call but I’d definitely lean towards Edge if it were my money.

I hesitate to say that Samsung “Finally Did It!” The fact that it took them this long to think carefully about design and not just paste a laundry list of features on the design lab wall is shameful. This phone can beat any lesser manufacturer’s offerings handily and it stands toe-to-toe with Apple. If Samsung can keep this up they will be truly successful in all facets of the manufacturing process. A friend once told me that he doesn’t buy Samsung phones because Samsung is a washing machine and air conditioner company. With this phone they are finally a mobile company.

Cracked iPhone screen? iCracked repair tech will come to you

 

by David Pierini

AJ Forsythe couldn’t stop dropping his iPhone and cracking the screen. He also couldn’t afford to be Apple’s best repair customer.

Clumsy but industrious, Forsythe bought parts on Alibaba and found he could fix his own phone cheaply and quickly. Soon, he was running a repair service out of his dorm room at California Polytechnic State University, replacing cracked touchscreens for $75.

Five years later, Forsythe runs a network of 1,700 technicians in the United States with another 400 in 11 countries under the name iCracked.

Nearly a quarter of all iPhone users in 2013 had a broken screen, according to a poll taken by a British mobile phone insurance company. A third of those said they would not bother getting their phone repaired. U.S. consumers have spent almost $5.9 million on repairs and insurance deductibles since the iPhone first went on sale in 2007.

iCracked tries to eliminate the hassle and wait by bringing a new screen to you and repairing it on the spot. iCracked also fixes damaged charge ports, faulty batteries and water damage.The average repair takes about 40 minutes.

“Much like Uber, our iTechs operate on a radius that they set, and they cover quite a bit of territory,” said Jordan Barnes, iCracked’s director of public relations and brand strategy. “We understand that as a consumer your smartphone is your most intimate digital relationship and … we get you back connected in the most secure and trusted way, as soon as possible.”

There are parts of the United States, like Fargo, N.D., where there are no iCracked techs available. People who can’t find service nearby can send their device to iCracked for a two-day turnaround or purchase DIY repairs kits for the various devices.

“Our iTech network has scaled incredibly fast over the last six months,” Barnes said. “We’ve doubled our fleet of iTechs in that time.”

The average iCracked service person does 30 to 50 repairs each week for an average of $80, Barnes said. Price varies depending on the device and the parts needed (iCracked fixes iPhones, iPads, iPods and Samsung Galaxy devices).

Technicians are subjected to background checks and a thorough vetting, Barnes said. They keep the money they make on the repairs, while iCracked generates revenue on its DIY kits and other products.

One tech blogger last year wrote of having a positive experience with iCracked, though the technician that came to fix her phone charged a little more than $200 for parts and labor.

With Apple having a tight hold on its components, iCracked uses parts from other suppliers that the company backs with a lifetime guarantee.

iCracked also offers an insurance plan for $7 per month where subscribers pay just a $25 deductible on a repair.

“We’ve iterated our product with every single innovation that smartphones manufacturers have come out with over the past four years, and we intend to keep doing so,” Barnes said.

New Microsoft patent could make phones less annoying in theatres

by OWEN WILLIAMS

 A patent granted to Microsoft this week could automatically adjust the settings on your phone to make it less annoying in movie theaters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Granted on January 13, the patent details an “inconspicuous mode” which would automatically adjust brightness, mute sounds and offer reduced information on the lock screen when the owner goes to the theater or is about to head to bed.

Inconspicuous mode would be triggered using sensors on the device when visiting a venue like a movie theater, or could be manually enabled by the user.

The patent application calls out detecting when the mode is required using GPS, sound, NFC, Wi-FI MAC addresses and other data, like the purchase of movie tickets in the device’s browser.

It also points out that the mode could be enabled using analysis of a user’s calendar, saying that if an event for seeing a movie were found in the calendar, the device could use this to automatically enter inconspicuous mode.

The patent application points out that a common problem is phones can be annoying to other movie viewers since they are often a substitute for a watch.

Users can choose when to exit the mode, or it will automatically exit when the condition that caused it to trigger is gone.

Windows Phone doesn’t currently have such a feature, but with the next big version of the platform on the horizon, perhaps this patent has arrived just in time for Microsoft.

Microsoft filed for the patent in 2013, but it was only granted it this month.

SHOULD YOU LEAVE YOUR SMARTPHONE PLUGGED INTO THE CHARGER OVERNIGHT?

By Simon Hill

 

Should you leave your smartphone plugged into the charger overnight?

It’s an issue that has plagued humanity since the dawn of the mobile phone. We use our trusty pocket computers so much that they rarely get through a day with any power left. Many of us plug them in at night and fall asleep, content in the knowledge that we’ll wake up to a fully charged device.

But, is it really safe to continue to leave our phones plugged into the charger once they’re fully charged? Is it damaging the battery or shortening its lifespan?

There are lots of myths and questionable ideas on this topic. You’ll find that the Internet is awash with opinions masquerading as facts. What’s the truth? We’ve got some answers for you.

Should you leave your phone plugged into the charger overnight?

“Leaving your phone plugged in overnight is okay to do, it will not drastically harm your device,” says Shane Broesky, co-founder of Farbe Technik, a company that makes charging accessories. “Your phone is very smart, once it is fully charged it knows when to stop the current from coming in to protect your phone from overcharging.”

Eventually the battery is going to noticeably degrade.
So far so good, but there are situations when leaving that smartphone plugged in overnight can slowly reduce the lifespan of your battery.

“Lithium-ion batteries can react poorly if your phone experiences elevated temperatures, leading to a damaging effect,” explains Shane, “If you have a case on your device that does not allow for heat to escape, this heat will increase the temperature of the battery and will cause cell oxidation, which will shrink the capacity and shorten the lifespan.“

Make sure you take your phone case off at night if you’re going to leave your phone plugged in and charging.

What’s the optimum way to charge your phone?

“The sweet spot for Lithium-ion batteries is to keep them charged between 50 and 80 percent. This allows for the charged ions to continue to work and protect the life of your battery,” says Shane. “Charging your device in short spurts throughout the day will give these ions just enough energy to keep them going.”

So frequent top ups, rather than one daily charge up is healthier for your battery. It’s not convenient, but that’s the optimal way to charge your smartphone if you want to ensure the longest life possible.

What to avoid

“The major threat to your battery is charge cycles”, Shane explains, “A charge cycle is where your battery goes from empty or near-empty to full and every phone battery has a limited number of charge cycles before the end of its life.”

You may have a high number of charge cycles before that limit is reached, but eventually the battery is going to noticeably degrade. When it does, you’ll find that it only lasts a very short amount of time, or it will simply not turn on at all.

“Try to avoid going from 0 to 100 percent whenever possible, this will start to break down your battery and give your device a shorter lifespan.” Shane suggests.

Use quality accessories

There’s one other factor to consider when charging your smartphone and it concerns the quality of the accessories you use. It’s always best to use the charger and cable that shipped with your smartphone. Failing that, you can buy another official charger and cable.

Cheap counterfeits are not built with safety in mind and can be very dangerous.
Sometimes official chargers and cables are eye-wateringly expensive. But you can find reputable alternatives. Manufacturers like Farbe Technik produce safe accessories that are fully tested, certified by the likes of Apple and Samsung, and compliant with legislation. If you are going to buy a charger from a third-party just make sure to stick to big brand names.

It’s also important to ensure that the charger and cable you buy has the correct rating. Cross-check the amp or watt rating with your phone’s specifications.

The real risks are found at the cheap end of the market. Cheap counterfeits are not built with safety in mind and can be very dangerous. They often don’t meet safety standards. The London Fire Brigade released a report last year warning about the dangers of electrocution, burns, and even house fires after a number of incidents caused by counterfeit iPhone chargers. The report also offers some advice on how to spot fakes.

Quick recap

You can leave your phone plugged into the charger overnight without too much risk, provided it’s not a counterfeit charger, and you don’t let your phone overheat. For best results with your smartphone charging, here’s what to remember:

Always use official chargers and cables, or certified alternatives from reputable brands and retailers.

Don’t let your phone get too hot. Remove the case when charging overnight.

For the longest battery life possible, try to keep your battery between 50 and 80 percent.

Avoid letting phone battery completely discharge, and don’t charge it from 0 percent up to 100 percent too often.