Technology Explained

If technology has you confused, this is the place to be. We break down complex and trending topics to convey them in a way everyone can understand.

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asus padfone
This $1,300 Asus phone became a tablet and then a laptop, but one flaw doomed it

The Asus Padfone was a smart idea but was way ahead of its time.

An angled view of the XPS 14 half-opened.
Your laptop's SSD is probably running in the wrong mode, and it's slowing you down

Most laptops ship with RAID as default, a storage configuration you don't really need,

google chrome on android phone
This privacy browser does 3 things Chrome should have copied years ago

I followed the duck instead.

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Laptop screen displaying Microsoft Word 1_10
Microsoft Word is older than Windows — and Unix got it first

Word was already hopping between platforms while Windows was still figuring out what it wanted to be.

SSD benchmark tool and commands
I changed how I buy SSDs after learning why most drives hit a wall during heavy workloads

An SSD's advertised speeds can be misleading — here's what actually matters when the cache fills up.

Battery section on Google Pixel 10 Pro
This Android screen explained why my battery drains faster at home

The bars weren't telling the truth.

DJI Osmo Action 4 kept on a desk.
The world’s biggest mobile OS was originally meant for digital cameras

Android’s first target is a great reminder that even billion-device ideas sometimes start pointed in the wrong direction.

New generic SSD
Some SSDs borrow your PC’s RAM to stay fast, and I tested the tradeoff

I stopped rejecting SSDs just because they lack DRAM.

Laptop running IBM Operating System 2
The operating system Microsoft actually wanted wasn't Windows

Imagine Microsoft helping build Windows’ replacement before Windows had even finished becoming important.

swiping away apps on android
You've been closing apps wrong your whole life — and it's slowing everything down

Here's why you should stop swiping apps away and what you should do instead.

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Comparing an HDMI cable to a DisplayPort cable.
Your monitor has two types of ports, but only one unlocks its full potential

You might be tempted to use HDMI for your monitor, but you should actually use DisplayPort.

ZIP file showing PK signature in Hex editor.
One programmer left his initials inside every ZIP file you open

Billions of archives later, one programmer is still getting an invisible credit every time you unzip something.

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Side view showing two USB-C and one USB-A port
Your laptop has one real USB-C port, and you're probably using the wrong one

That identical-looking plug might be throttling everything you connect.

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Bluetooth LE Audio headphones and the Audio broadcast settings in One UI 8.5.
5 things Bluetooth's new LE Audio finally fixes that regular Bluetooth never could

Bluetooth is built on ancient tech, but LE Audio gives it new life.

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