COMMON TECH MISCONCEPTIONS

Technology today is part of who we are. Phones, tablets, laptops and other devices have taken over our lives, and it is rare day indeed which we spend without the company of one or the other device to get us through. But even in such technologically advanced times, very few of us understand exactly how these devices work, and there are quite a lot of misconceptions that float around our heads.
1. MAC Computers cannot get viruses
A famous marketing campaign driven by Apple a few years ago pitted the MAC against the PC, and one of the advertisements focused on the MAC’s ‘inability’ to get infected by viruses and malware. Well, there is such a thing as tempting fate. As if on cue, in 2012, a Trojan hit thousands of MAC units, and in response Apple modified its marketing drive.
2. Incognito browsing keeps you anonymous
There is misconception that private browsing in Safari and incognito browsing in Chrome will keep your identity anonymous. The reality, though, is that the browser will not store your history, and will not log you into any of our accounts automatically. It will also not import your bookmarks. But your identity? That remains as it is, and sites will still be able to find you by your I.P. address. So don’t let the incognito browsing option give you the false confidence to visit websites that you shouldn’t be.
3. Leaving your phone plugged in destroys the battery
This used to be true perhaps in the early nineties, where battery chargers were not intelligent enough to break the circuit once the device was fully charged. Modern Lithium ion batteries have different charging modes such as ‘fast’ and ‘trickle’ built into them, so they can maintain themselves on 99% charge using the ‘trickle’ feature when plugged in, without damaging the battery and also without using up too much electricity.
4. Don’t charge your phone unless it’s almost dead
This is another charging myth that persists from the nineties. Today’s batteries and charging circuits have no qualms with you plugging in to charge them no matter how much they’re already charged. Earlier, there used to be a point of view that this affects the charging cycles of the battery. But it doesn’t. A half-charge counts as half a cycle, and the battery dies when it reaches the full number of charging cycles that it can go through. It doesn’t matter if you plug it in when it is fully charged, drained, or half charged.
5. Higher resolution is always better
As human beings, we have a fascination with numbers, and when it comes to numbers, higher is always better. But when it comes to screen resolution, beyond a point, the human eye is incapable of discerning individual pixels. When a 1920 x 1280 phone was tested against a 2560 x 1440 phone on human users, most found no difference between the two phones until they were told whose resolution was higher. This is why some companies – like Apple – focus more on brightness than on packing more pixels into the screen.