Refrigerator Quick-Tips
Keep the Proper Temperature The ideal temperature for a refrigerator is 35–38°F. Higher than 40°F is unsafe and will allow bacteria to multiply and food to spoil. Use a refrigerator thermometer to keep track of the temperature. As with ovens, a stand alone thermometer will give a more accurate reading than the built-in digital thermometer. Position the thermometer in the warmest part of your refrigerator: … Continue reading Refrigerator Quick-Tips
Portable Air Conditioner Buying Guide
Why Choose a Portable Air Conditioner Portable air conditioners are designed to cool a single room and are simple and easy to install. Their compact design and wheels make it easy to move the unit from one room to another as needed. Installation is not permanent. Portable air conditioners are a good option for rooms with no existing air conditioning or rooms that only need … Continue reading Portable Air Conditioner Buying Guide
How Fans Cool You Down
How does a fan cool you down if it doesn’t actually make the air cooler? A fan actually makes the room warmer (but not enough to notice). Because the electric motor of the fan isn’t 100% efficient, it generates heat. The blades of the fan themselves even generate heat via friction as they rub against the air. Thankfully these effects are tiny and unnoticeable. Fans … Continue reading How Fans Cool You Down
Improve Your Laptop Battery Life
Batteries are designed to last a certain number of charge cycles. (A charge cycle would be taking the battery from 100% to 0%, and taking the battery from 100% to 50% would count as 0.5 charge cycles.) As you use up charge cycles—and they are measured in the hundreds—your battery capacity decreases. Here are some tips to reduce the drain on your battery to keep … Continue reading Improve Your Laptop Battery Life
9 Ways to Make Your Smartphone Battery Last Longer
Unlike the 1990s, today’s cell phones do much more than make and receive phone calls. Now the equivalent of micro-tablets, we have all the more reasons to use them throughout the day and that drains the battery. Here are some tips to help your phone battery last the whole day, plus a couple of tips to help it perform at a high-level long-term. Dim the … Continue reading 9 Ways to Make Your Smartphone Battery Last Longer
TV Comparison: LED vs OLED
With the plasma TV now extinct there are now two types of TVs: LED and OLED. An LED TV is a type of LCD TV. LCD stands for liquid crystal display. A layer of liquid crystal solution is suspended between two glass panels. Millions of transistors use electrical charges to manipulate the crystals, creating the image you see. The liquid crystals themselves produce no light, … Continue reading TV Comparison: LED vs OLED
TV Acronyms Explained
If you’ve ever looked a TV box you may be left wondering what all those acronyms mean. We bring some clarity to the situation: Resolution Resolution measures the amount of pixels in a TV screen. The higher the number, the clearer the picture will be. 720p HD : The lowest version of high definition. This resolution is found on 32 inch and smaller TVs where … Continue reading TV Acronyms Explained
Laptop vs Tablet Buying Guide
Should you get a laptop or a tablet? As the gap between the two continues to close, we walk you through the differences to help make the right decision for you. Portability Will you be carrying your device often? Smaller, thinner, and lighter, tablets win on portability. Ultra-portable laptops are available with 11–12 inch displays, but they still won’t be as light as a tablet. … Continue reading Laptop vs Tablet Buying Guide