All posts tagged: Gaining

I changed one Android setting and improved performance while gaining battery life

I changed one Android setting and improved performance while gaining battery life

Published by skeptic

Android phones today are more powerful than ever, yet they somehow still end up feeling slower after a few months of use. It’s the same processor, same software, and same amount of RAM, but it just feels slow. The real difference is usually the number of apps installed on the phone. The more apps you have, the more background processes Android has to deal with. So I recently decided to manually manage background permissions for apps on my phone to see if it’d help. Not only did my phone feel more responsive, but with less background activity, battery life improved too. Related Your Samsung phone can optimize itself overnight — here’s how to set it up Make these changes for a faster phone each day. How background apps can drag performance down The RAM hogs you never see Credit: Brady Snyder / MakeUseOf RAM plays a huge role in how smooth your Android phone feels in daily use. It’s what allows your phone to keep apps ready in the background, switch between tasks quickly, and make …

A new CA e-bike law was just proposed, gaining broad support

A new CA e-bike law was just proposed, gaining broad support

Published by skeptic

California lawmakers are once again turning their attention to electric two-wheelers, but this time the approach looks more targeted – and notably, it’s drawing broader support from major bike advocacy groups. State Senator Catherine Blakespear has introduced Senate Bill 1167, a proposal aimed at tightening oversight of higher-powered electric mopeds and so-called “e-motos” that are often marketed as e-bikes but don’t actually meet California’s legal definition of one. These 40-50 mph (65-80 km/h) motorbikes from manufacturers like Sur Ron, Talaria, and others are effectively light off-road motorcycles but often masquerade as electric bicycles due to their silent operation and small size. Unlike recent proposals that would require license plates or registration for broad categories of e-bikes, SB 1167 focuses on clarifying where the line is drawn — and enforcing it. What the new bill is trying to fix Over the past several years, California has seen an explosion in the popularity of electric bikes. Alongside that boom has come a parallel surge in high-powered electric two-wheelers – often Sur Ron–style machines – which some say …

Why EVs are gaining ground in Africa

Why EVs are gaining ground in Africa

Published by skeptic

But there are some signs of progress. I just finished up a story about the economic case: A recent study in Nature Energy found that EVs from scooters to minibuses could be cheaper to own than gas-powered vehicles in Africa by 2040. If there’s one thing to know about EVs in Africa, it’s that each of the 54 countries on the continent faces drastically different needs, challenges, and circumstances. There’s also a wide range of reasons to be optimistic about the prospects for EVs in the near future, including developing policies, a growing grid, and an expansion of local manufacturing.   Even the world’s leading EV markets fall short of Ethiopia’s aggressively pro-EV policies. In 2024, the country became the first in the world to ban the import of non-electric private vehicles. The case is largely an economic one: Gasoline is expensive there, and the country commissioned Africa’s largest hydropower dam in September 2025, providing a new source of cheap and abundant clean electricity. The nearly $5 billion project has a five-gigawatt capacity, doubling the grid’s …

How the sometimes-weird world of lifespan extension is gaining influence

How the sometimes-weird world of lifespan extension is gaining influence

Published by skeptic

My reporting has also made me realize that the current interest in longevity reaches beyond social media influencers and wellness centers. Longevity clinics are growing in number, and there’s been a glut of documentaries about living longer or even forever. At the same time, powerful people who influence state laws, giant federal funding budgets, and even national health policy are prioritizing the search for treatments that slow or reverse aging. The longevity community was thrilled when longtime supporter Jim O’Neill was made deputy secretary of health and human services last year. Other members of Trump’s administration, including Oz, have spoken about longevity too. “It seems that now there is the most pro-longevity administration in American history,” Gries told me. I recently spoke to Alicia Jackson, the new director of ARPA-H. The agency, established in 2022 under Joe Biden’s presidency, funds “breakthrough” biomedical research. And it appears to have a new focus on longevity. Jackson previously founded and led Evernow, a company focused on “health and longevity for every woman.” “There’s a lot of interesting technologies, but they all kind …

What’s UpScrolled, the app gaining popularity after TikTok’s US takeover? | Censorship News

What’s UpScrolled, the app gaining popularity after TikTok’s US takeover? | Censorship News

Published by Sam Flores

UpScrolled, a social media application created by Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian entrepreneur Issam Hijazi, has surged in popularity across several countries, including the United States, as many users looked for an alternative to TikTok, which was formally taken over by US-backed investors and companies last week. With Larry Ellison, the owner of Oracle, who is a staunch supporter of Israel and a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, acquiring a stake in TikTok’s US-based entity, social media users have expressed concerns about censorship of pro-Palestine posts on the popular app. TikTok’s global operation will still be run by its Chinese owner, ByteDance. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list On Wednesday, TikTok permanently banned Emmy Award-winning journalist and Al Jazeera contributor from Gaza, Bisan Owda, sparking outrage and boycott calls from her supporters. The app has also been accused of content censorship around unprecedented ICE violence in the US. UpScrolled, which was founded only a year ago, surprisingly climbed to the top spot of US app downloads this week, ranking number one in the “social networking” …

AI Backlash Is Gaining Massive Momentum

AI Backlash Is Gaining Massive Momentum

Published by José Betancourt

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images For the tech of the future, generative AI sure is making a lot of enemies in a very short time. If 2023 was the year of AI’s awakening and 2024 the year of its frantic adoption, then it’s safe to say 2025 will be remembered as the year it all came crashing back down to reality. From boardrooms to classrooms, from game studios to Senate committees, this will be the year many remember as the one when AI finally wore out its welcome. For many small towns throughout the US, the AI boom has come wafting in on a cloud of noxious smog that critics say is leading to to increased cancer risk and hostile takeovers of local infrastructure, not to mention skyrocketing electricity bills. That being the case, it’s no surprise a huge number of rural communities have spent the year organizing and agitating to shut down the tech industry’s data center projects wherever they pop up. Indeed, from the Great Lakes to the Pacific …