Tetyana_Pidkaluyk/Shutterstock We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Belkin accessories occupy an interesting place in the market, as they are generally good alternatives to official Apple or Samsung products. The brand competes well with official iPhone accessories, especially when it comes to chargers and MagSafe solutions. Still, Belkin’s reputation doesn’t mean that every company product is automatically the best choice. There has also been a sharp increase in competition for Belkin. Brands like Anker, Ugreen and ESR also offer accessories with similar propositions, often at better prices.…
Author: Amelia Scott
Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock A good night’s sleep is essential for waking up rested and ready for the new day, but for many of us, it’s not as simple as it seems. If you wake up groggy, there are expert tips for getting a better night’s sleep, and one of them is to be more conscious of screen use before bed. This means avoiding screens for at least an hour before bed, including computers, television, and your smartphone. Of course, this is much easier said than done. Much of your life takes…
pu_kibun/Shutterstock You’ve probably heard that new laptops need to be fully charged before use. Some even say you should drain the battery and then recharge it. This initial break-in phase is believed to help calibrate the battery so that its true capacity sets in. The aim is to avoid the memory effect, where partial discharge cycles lead to the permanent loss of battery capacity due to the unused portion of its electrode material crystallizing over time. In this sense, the battery “forgets” the unused capacity. It usually takes about two…
Vlad Ispas/Shutterstock If you’ve been using Waze for a while, you’ve probably already browsed many of the app’s original voices for your readers. This is one of the reasons why Waze is better than Google Maps in terms of customization. When you get tired of one voice, you can simply choose a new one from at least 200 navigation voices in multiple languages. For English alone, you have over 80 different options to choose from. But even with this wide choice of voices, you might eventually feel like none of…
DacologiePhoto/Shutterstock Although Google Maps is generally a valuable source of information, sometimes issues can be missed by busy moderators. Case in point: when a man in Beijing fooled everyone from government officials to navigation apps and got his name listed as a street. In 2013, Ge Yulu, a Beijing-based artist, discovered a street in Chaoyang District lacking a street sign due to confusion during rezoning. So he came up with the idea of putting up a sign naming the street Ge Yu Lu, which made sense to locals since “Lu”…
Try this before sending it in for repair or upgrade. Samsung If your Samsung Galaxy has started draining its battery too quickly or dropping calls, or just seems to be on the wrong end of an update, there are plenty of hardware items you can check before downloading another app or heading to a repair shop. Samsung offers a suite of phone diagnostics in Device Care. Go to Settings > Device care > Diagnostics, then tap Phone diagnostics. From here, you can test individual components or tap Test All and go through the checklist. According to…
Stockinq/Shutterstock Apple released its new iOS 27 update in September 2026 and users enjoyed new features like AI photo editing capabilities and child safety tools. One of the main features, however, is the new Siri AI. But even if you have a compatible iPhone, you need to request access from Apple to enable Siri AI, as it’s still technically under testing. When you do, Apple says you’ll be waitlisted, but it’s unclear for how long. Technically speaking, Apple says Siri AI is still in beta despite deep AI integration in…
Claudio Borquez Airs/Shutterstock Google Home is one of the most popular smart home ecosystems because it’s compatible with tens of thousands of products, including some interesting smart home gadgets from Google that make it easy to automate, security, and monitor your home. But there were some issues with the system that needed to be fixed, so on September 16, 2026, Google released a significant update. This update included new features, but it also brought bug fixes and improvements for four key issues. For most users, the most important fix in…
Andrey Baidak/Shutterstock As Google prepares Android Auto for a major update by teasing users with new icons and more, a new Google Maps update brings a slight but noticeable improvement for drivers. Although Google Maps has shown driver information such as traffic lights since August 2020 (as does Apple Maps, for what it’s worth, and Waze is currently rolling out a similar feature), this new feature provides more relevant information about intersections. Spotted and tested by 9to5Google, Google Maps now offers Android Auto users a pop-up with information about an…
Apple released watchOS 27 on September 14. The features and changes aren’t limited to owners of the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 models. If you have an Apple Watch model that supports the latest update, here are 12 features and changes to check out after installation. To do this, open the Watch app on your iPhone, then tap General ➝ Software Update, attach your watch to a charger, and follow the on-screen prompts. Discover the dedicated Siri application Siri has finally caught up with the AI revolution and, in addition to having contextual awareness, it…