Seven technology myths busted

1. Incognito or Private browsing modes in Google Chrome or Safari web browsers allow you to browse the web anonymously. False! 

People often get confused by this. Using private browsing functions in web browsers doesn’t mean that you aren’t being tracked and that your IP address and location are being hidden. Your internet service provider (ISP) is still fully aware of what you’re doing online. It just means that your web browser won’t retain any local record of your web browsing history.

2. The more bars on your smartphone you have, the better quality service you’ll receive. False! 

The bars only indicate the signal strength you have with the nearest cell phone tower. The quality of the cellular coverage you receive is based on how many devices are being served from that tower. It’s possible that you could have 3 or 4 bars on your phone and still get crappy service if too many people are tapping the same cell phone tower. 

3. Macs don’t get viruses. False! 

Mac OS X gets its fair share of malicious code just like Windows, although not nearly to the same extent. Firstly, viruses are harder to write for the Mac. Secondly, hackers generally prefer to produce them for Windows because that’s where they can do the most damage due to its market dominance. 

4. You should only recharge your smartphone or laptop when its battery has been fully drained. False! 

Older nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride rechargeable cells did have a kind of battery memory, where if they were charged without being fully discharged they would no longer recharge to 100%. However modern lithium-ion and lithium-ion polymer batteries don’t behave this way. They can be charged fully from any point and should retain maximum performance for about 2 - 3 years regardless of how they are recharged. 

5. Expensive cables are superior to cheaper ones. False! 

The audio / visual community is rife with these kinds of myths, including how vinyl sounds better than digital audio. Mythbusters successfully proved that things like expensive gold-plated HDMI cables are simply no better than normal ones. Save your cash and ignore the marketing nonsense. 

6. The World Wide Web is just another way of saying the Internet. False! 

Actually they are two different things. The Internet is the infrastructure, which allows networks to communicate with each other, share information and permit users to access such networks from their computers. The Web is one of those networks that allows its information to be accessed through websites containing http and www. 

7. Closing apps on your iPhone saves battery. False!

While this can be true for certain apps and is certainly more true on Android smartphones than iOS and Windows Phone devices, it is generally not true.

The majority of apps nowadays are capable of offering multitasking to the user. There are two ways of doing this, the first is conventional multitasking where an app can run in the background while the user is doing something else on screen, the second is what the majority of apps in iOS and Windows Phone do, which is a form of suspended multitasking. 

The user can switch from one app to another and return to the previous app where they left off because iOS pauses that app. The app in the background isn’t actually running, it’s suspended, therefore it isn’t having any impact on battery life. However Music, VOIP and GPS navigation apps are often exceptions.

Android on the other hand lets everything run freely alongside each other.

Source: - utv