If I say “Apple”, no doubt you think “security”.
Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, you might even be making it EASIER for the bad guys to spy on you if you use an iPhone.
In any case, the cat’s out of the bag – and it’s all thanks to US spying on Russia!
What a crazy world…
On Samsung smartphones, you may have a new friend: the dreaded Now Brief button.
It’s right near the fingerprint reader and deliberately placed so that when you try unlock your phone, OOPS!
You open Now Brief instead.
SIGH…
Here’s how to turn it OFF!!
WiFi may be convenient, but it’s infamous for its often poor connection quality.
Stuttering voice and video chats, slow download speeds, and so on…
While not as handy as WiFi, a wired Ethernet connection is always fast, reliable, and rock solid.
But how to get Ethernet on your phone or tablet?
It’s easier than you think.
Update August 2025: This article is outdated. See updated article: Read what you want without a VPN!!
These days, darn near everything is censored – for your protection, of course!
While you may be able to read whatever web sites you want from home, mobile operators are particularly fond of blocking certain sites.
This is obviously particularly annoying for those of us who like to choose what we read and, ya know, make up our own minds. We’re not ALL brainless zombies.
While you could use a VPN, it’s often a PITA to set them up and use them. The best ones are also paid…
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easy, free option to view what you want? Turns out, there is!
The Specific Absorption Rate, or SAR, of a phone shows how much energy from radio frequency waves is absorbed by body parts – head, torso, whole body, etc.
The idea is that phones can be certified as “safe”, while also allowing some sort of comparison between different phones. In reality, the whole thing is a bit of a bad joke.
Even the FCC admits SAR is a pretty useless rating!
Join me for another fascinating look inside our modern “Wireless Wonderland”!
I’ve been using dumbphones for awhile now, but I started to miss some smartphone features.
Then a friend of mine mentioned LineageOS again. I decided to take the plunge… And I’m glad I did!
It IS possible to have a relatively private smartphone without all the Googley madness – even in this day and age.
But it does take a bit of time, patience, and some technical know-how.
Note that I don’t walk through the entire installation process here since it’s particular to your specific phone…
Until now, apps were for smartphones and tablets. But that’s all about to change with PWAs: Progressive Web Apps!
PWAs are a new(ish) type of app that is web-based.
In other words, PWAs are literally web sites + JavaScript encapsulated in a window on whatever gizmo you want to install them on.
That means you can use the same app on your phone, tablet, desktop, or laptop – whether you use Windows, linux, or Mac.
Progressive Web Apps also work differently than normal apps, making them a bit more secure and privacy-oriented than traditional native apps.
So, what are these things and how do they work?
These days, everyone just uses their smartphone for GPS navigation.
GPS is also present in most cars.
In the olden days, we had dedicated GPS gizmos for navigating. You can still grab a GPS-only device these days – and for fewer bucks than you might think.
But is it worth it to have a dedicated GPS?
It turns that yes, it is… For quite a few reasons, actually, not the least of which is simple privacy.
We hear a lot these days about China and the E-vils of their techie toys.
Obviously, there is also a lot of political nonsense going on here given China’s economic rise on the world stage. But how bad are Chinese toys – really?
I mean, everything is Made in China anyway, right?
Join Cletus and I for a fascinating look behind the tech curtain! Iron curtain? Red curtain? Some kind of curtain!
Many people have asked me how to use ethernet instead of WiFi with their tablet or smartphone.
While the idea is simple enough, getting ethernet to actually work with your gizmo can be anything but easy…
Some devices simply won’t work with certain USB-Ethernet dongles, and other devices won’t work at all with any dongle – period.
So, the short answer is: it’s complicated!
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