I am certain that you’ve heard and actually believe a couple (or more) of these things. News flash: these are actually myths, or simply put, aren’t true at all. Here’s a list of common technology myths and some explanation why these are not entirely true.
- You can’t charge your phone battery if it’s not yet drained.
When you let your phone battery fully drain before charging it, you can maintain its life. This is true ONLY for Nickel-Cadmium batteries which are said to suffer from “memory effect”, or losing the ability to charge up to 100% when charged and discharged for so many times. Good thing, in 2006, most NiCd batteries were already replaced with a new technology that uses Lithium-ion batteries which have higher power densities. With these, you can now recharge your phone batteries whenever convenient.
- More bars equate to more service.
The bars that we have on our phones are indicators of the signal strength to the cell phone tower that’s closest to us. These, however, do not indicate the quality of service that we can get because this depends on how many devices those towers are serving at that particular time.
- Cameras with higher megapixels are better.
The number of camera megapixels seems to increase every year, making people want to always upgrade. It’s important to know though that higher megapixels do not necessarily translate to a better version of your camera. Even though it’s true that more megapixels mean clearer photos, there’s also a misconception of just how high the megapixels should be in order to produce quality pictures which can be enjoyed on the phone, computer screen or in print. So if your camera already functions perfectly and produces quality photos, there’s no need for you to upgrade to higher megapixels.
- You can permanently delete your files if you empty the trash of recycle bin.
When you delete something, and then delete it again from the trash, you simply free up space and not delete the fragments behind which could actually be revived. If you want to permanently delete your files, choose “Secure Empty Trash” on a Mac, and download a program such as SDelete on a PC.
- You are anonymous when you set your browser to incognito.
Setting your browser to incognito simply means that any information on the sites you visited will not be saved. This, however, doesn’t keep you anonymous. Your visits can still be recorded and the files that you download can still be available.
- Macs can’t be infected by viruses.
This myth came years ago when Windows was the most common operating system. Now that Mac users are continually increasing, Macs are becoming more and more vulnerable to viruses as well. As stated by Apple on its website, “The OS X operating system isn’t susceptible to the thousands of viruses plaguing Windows-based computers.”
- Expensive cables are much better than the inexpensive ones.
Here’s the news: there’s no difference between an expensive and inexpensive cable. Unless you are running cable permanently through walls or ceiling where it is practical to invest on heavier-duty cables, you really don’t need to spend extra money on gold-plated cable connectors and the like.
There you have it—technology myths debunked! Do you have something to add to our list? Feel free to leave a comment!