Technology

Exactly 360 years to the day since the Dutch merchant ship Melckmeyt was wrecked off a remote Icelandic island, experts have harnessed virtual reality to create a stunning virtual dive of the wreck.

The Melckmeyt or “Milkmaid” was on a secret trading mission when it sank during a sudden storm. Digital archaeology specialists from Australia’s Flinders University have worked with maritime archaeologists at the University of Iceland to create a 360-degree virtual view of the wreck, which was discovered in 1992.

The ship was lost amid international tensions over Icelandic.

“The kingdom of Denmark ruled Iceland and forbade other European nations from trading with the island,” explained officials of Flinders University and the University of Iceland in a joint statement obtained by Fox News. “However, in 1659 a surprise attack by the Swedish king on the Danish capital prevented any Danish supply ships from traveling to Iceland.”

WRECK OF WWII SHIP DISCOVERED 74 YEARS AFTER IT DISAPPEARED DURING A RESCUE MISSION

Keen to grasp an opportunity for trade, Dutch merchants sent a small fleet of ships to Iceland under a false Danish flag.

“This fleet was welcomed by locals and proved a success, trading grain, timber and ceramics from mainland Europe for locally caught and dried fish, woollen goods, sheepskins and whale oil,” the universities explained in the statement.

However, the Melckmeyt spent too long on its secret trading mission and was caught in the storm, losing one member of the ship’s crew. “The survivors took shelter above water in the highest point of wreck for the next two days,” said the universities.

Thanks to the icy Icelandic waters, the wreck is remarkably well preserved. Fourteen years after its discovery by local divers Erlendur Guðmundsson and Sævar Árnason, a team of researchers including experts from the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands and Kevin Martin, a graduate student at the University of Iceland, completed a detailed 3D survey of the site.

STUNNING CARGO DISCOVERED ON WELL-PRESERVED ROMAN SHIPWRECK

“The significance of this wreck is enormous for Iceland,” said Martin in the statement. “As it is one of the oldest known historic wrecks in this part of the world, it shines a light on a fascinating period of Icelandic history, when Denmark ruled the island and had a monopoly over trade here for a period of 200 years. We have also been able to directly embed a 3D survey of the seabed with full photographic texture. In theory, a member of the public viewing this might even spot something on the wreck that we have missed during our dives on it!”

The virtual dive was created by John McCarthy, a graduate student in maritime archaeology at Flinders University.

“We have even based the stern painting on a real contemporary Dutch painting, Vermeer’s famous ‘Milkmaid,’ painted just one year before the ship was wrecked,” he said in the statement.

A paper on the virtual dive will be presented at the annual conference of the Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology in Brisbane, Australia, on Oct. 18.

SUNKEN WWII SHIP MAY CONTAIN $130 MILLION OF NAZI GOLD

Other Icelandic shipwrecks have been garnering attention. Earlier this year, the wreck of the Empire Wold, a Royal Navy tug, was discovered by coastguards off the coast of Iceland. The discovery solved a decades-long mystery about the fate of the ship, which disappeared during a World War II rescue mission.

The ship sank on Nov. 10, 1944, with the loss of her 16 crewmembers. The sinking prompted speculation that the Empire Wold had fallen victim to a German U-boat, although the ship’s discovery led experts to believe that she foundered in heavy seas and 40-knot winds.

In 2017, the SS Minden, a German cargo ship scuttled in waters near Iceland during the early days of World War II, was in the international spotlight following the reported discovery of  a chest containing up to four tons of Nazi gold on the wreck.

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Twitter will restrict how users can interact with tweets from world leaders who violate its rules.

The social media company led by CEO Jack Dorsey said in a Tuesday blog post that it will not allow users to like, reply, share or retweet offending tweets, but it will let users quote-tweet them so they can still express their own opinions.

The San Francisco-based company has faced a backlash from critics over its hateful conduct and content moderation policies. Some organizations and users believe it should subject the tweets of leaders like President Trump to the same standards as everyone else on the platform.

YOUTUBE SAYS FAKE VIDEO OF TRUMP SHOOTING AT MEDIA DOES NOT VIOLATE RULES

“When it comes to the actions of world leaders on Twitter, we recognize that this is largely new ground and unprecedented,” the company said. “We want to make it clear today that the accounts of world leaders are not above our policies entirely.”

Twitter listed several areas that will result in enforcement action, even if the account involved is a public figure: promotion of terrorism; clear and direct threats of violence against an individual; posting private information; posting or sharing intimate photos or videos of someone that were produced or shared without consent; engaging in behaviors related to child sexual exploitation; and encouraging or promoting self-harm.

In cases involving a world leader, the company said that it will “err on the side of leaving the content up if there is a clear public interest in doing so.”

AMAZON SPOKESMAN SAYS ATTACKS AGAINST TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WERE ‘PERSONAL’ VIEWS AFTER BEING CALLED OUT

“Our goal is to enforce our rules judiciously and impartially. In doing so, we aim to provide direct insight into our enforcement decision-making, to serve public conversation, and protect the public’s right to hear from their leaders and to hold them to account,” Twitter said at the conclusion of its blog post.

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They can form swarms of hundreds of mini, precision-guided explosives, overwhelm radar or simply blanket an area with targeting sensors. They can paint or light up air, ground or sea targets for enemy fighters, missiles or armored vehicles, massively increasing warzone vulnerability. The can instantly emerge from behind mountains to fire missiles at Army convoys, infantry on the move or even mechanized armored columns.

They can increasingly operate with less and less human intervention and be programmed to enter enemy airspace, crossing into well-defended areas with decreased risk. Finally, perhaps of greatest significance, many of them can now fire weapons with little human intervention.

They — are commercial and military attack drones now proliferating at alarming rates around the world.

Not only are attack drones easily purchasable on the commercial market, but they are rapidly becoming more and more advanced given the lightning speed at which technology is now advancing. Video can be gathered with much higher fidelity at longer ranges, navigational systems can more accurately merge with sensors and targeting technologies and larger numbers of drones can increasingly operate in tandem – in a more coordinated fashion. Battery technology, to cite another example, is progressing so quickly that drones are increasing dwell time over targets, complicating any effort to defend against them.

Overall, the Army is fast-tracking what could be called an entire sphere of counter-drone weapons; these include Electronic Warfare innovations to jam enemy drone signals, Stryker-mounted Hellfire missiles to shoot drones out of the sky and — in a Raytheon effort with the Army — create an integrated “sense-track-hit” counter-drone kill chain.

ARMY SETS BAR ‘VERY HIGH’ FOR OPTIONALLY MANNED FIGHTING VEHICLE

Called the Howler, Raytheon’s Counter Unmanned Systems (C-UAS) could be described in terms of a three-pronged approach; mobile or ground fixed radar uses Ku band radio to detect enemy drones before the signals are analyzed by computerized fire control, leading to the firing of an armed tube-launched interceptor drone called Coyote.

“This operates throughout the kill chain. We start with sense and detect using our radars, then we use Command and Control which is the brains…and then our effectors,” Cliff Johnson, business development director for tactical radars, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, told Warrior.

The effectors, as referred to by Johnson, can come in the form of Raytheon’s Coyote 1 and Coyote 2 mini attack drones. Equipped with an advanced seeker and small warhead, Coyotes can launch from a range of locations, including fixed locations and armored vehicles on-the-move.

“It can be mounted on a vehicle where it has the radar and the Coyote launch tube, with a separate vehicle that has command and control. It can also be in fixed locations where everything is taken off the vehicle,” Johnson said.

For instance, in the event that an Infantry Brigade Combat Team, with armored vehicle support, were maneuvering through mountainous terrain, they could easily be vulnerable to sudden drone attacks. The Raytheon-Army Howler program, operational and ready for war, exists for exactly this reason. By sending electromagnetic “pings” forward at the speed of light, the Howler’s radar can bounce signals off enemy drones and then analyze the return signal. This process is engineered to produce a rendering of the size, shape and even speed of an enemy drone. This information is then processed through fire control technology, intended to target the enemy and guide the interceptor. Therefore, it seems almost too self-evident to say, speed is of the essence. This is why Johnson emphasized the rapid sensor-to-shooter coordination needed to complete the kill chain.

The pace of technical change, and its implications for attack drones, is well captured in a 2017 Essay in an Air and Space Power Journal called “AIR MINES: Countering the Drone Threat to Aircraft.”

ARMY BRINGS AI TO ELECTRONIC WARFARE

“Moore’s Law states that the processing power of electronic devices doubles every 18 months. By 2025 the currently widely proliferated “quadcopter” drones and their successors will have the capability to fly autonomously—at much higher altitudes, with longer flights—and be capable of complex formation maneuvers. These advances may happen soon since drones are already making strides in these areas,” the essay states. (Lt Col Leslie F. Hauck III, USAF & Dr. John P. Geis II, Colonel, USAF, Retired .. as of 2017).

Interestingly, this move to accelerate sensor processing and fire control, as discussed by Johnson, aligns with current Army technical thinking when it comes to increasing the speed of fire control technology. Much of this naturally hinges upon computer processing speed and an ability to gather and organize vast pools of incoming sensor data. Therefore, it is no surprise that quickening the detection and processing functions has the attention of Army Futures Command’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force.

“Fire control is about enabling and speeding-up what you can recognize in the battlefield to help a soldier who might normally have to sift through intelligence data and look for cues to get the right targeting information,” Lt. Col. Chris Lowrance, autonomous systems lead, Army Artificial Intelligence Task Force, told reporters at the Association of the United States Army annual symposium.

All of this generates a compelling need to keep pace with technological change, surge advancement of weapons able to detect and destroy drones and pursue initiatives to better understand the technical mechanisms of drones themselves. These efforts, underway by both industry and the military services, represent the pursuit of technologies engineered to mirror, replicate and even acquire the types of commercial drones available around the world. Naturally, understanding the components and functions of enemy drones are the prerequisite or precursor to the development of technologies able to track and destroy them. Simply put, before a drone can be “jammed,” “intercepted” or “destroyed” by weapons, its technical mechanisms and functionality must first be understood.

“There are systems now that can take down UAS with little collateral damage, and these systems are becoming more autonomous in the short term,” Brig. Gen. Matt Easley, director of the Army Artificial Intelligence Task Force, told reporters at the Association of the United States Army Annual Symposium.

ARMY SETS SIGHTS ON NEW FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGY

The challenges of taking out attacking drones, which Howler and other systems are engineered to meet, is now being addressed across the services. The Army’s Rapid Equipping Force has been fast-tracking electronic-warfare based weapons to “jam” enemy drones, the Navy has been tailoring shipboard sensors to enable interceptor weapons to knock out medium and low-flying drones in maritime combat and the Air Force has been working to upgrade fighter-based Active Electronically Scanned Arrays to find enemy drones at greater distances.

“How do we see attacks coming in and sift through those attacks faster? We want to see attacks in real time,” Easley said.

— Kris Osborn of WARRIOR MAVEN (CLICK HERE) can be reached at krisosborn.ko@gmail.com

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An experimental attack helicopter that looks like a flying saucer has been unveiled in China.

The strange flying machine, dubbed the Great White Shark, is loaded with an arsenal of high-tech weaponry and could take to the skies as early as next year.

Pictures of the UFO-like aircraft with an unusual central cockpit first began to circulate online last week after it featured at an air show near Beijing.

CLICK ON THE SUN FOR MORE

State-run Chinese paper Global Times later confirmed that the contraption was a new type of experimental helicopter known as the Great White Shark.

The craft can be coated with stealth materials and loaded with missiles, making it a potentially lethal weapon on the battlefield.

“The Super Great White Shark is a high-speed helicopter designed for future digitalized warfare,” Global Times wrote.

“Attracted by the futuristic design of the aircraft, Chinese military observers pointed out that the aircraft’s high-speed and stealth capabilities could give the weapon an edge on the battlefield.”

The helicopter was apparently shown off at the China Aviation Helicopter Industry Base in the eastern Chinese district of Binhai.

It was essentially a wide metal ring with a cockpit lodged in its center, stretching more than seven meters long and just under three meters wide.

A propeller was housed within the ring, bolstered by two turbojet engines that can provide forward thrust. The craft’s pokey size would help it avoid detection on the battlefield

Plans suggest the craft would be capable of firing missiles at enemy targets, though exactly where they would launch from is unclear.

It can apparently reach speeds of up to 400mph and fly up to 20,000 feet high.

Some experts in China reportedly expressed concerns that the craft would not be stable enough to fly. Similar experiments in the US have later been canned.

“Whether or not this particular helicopter can become practical, such explorations are beneficial to China’s technology development for future helicopters,” an anonymous military expert told the Global Times.

China, hell-bent on becoming the world’s most powerful country, recently boosted annual military spending to a whopping £140billion.

For comparison, Britain spends $48 billion a year on its military, while the United States defense budget – the biggest in the world – sits at $696 billion.

This story originally appeared in The Sun.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google unveiled a new Pixel smartphone and other hardware devices Tuesday, all aimed at getting people even more dependent on its artificial-intelligence services.

The Pixel 4 phone promises to respond to AI queries even faster than before, while a home Wi-Fi system is getting the AI features for the first time. The company also unveiled a new smart speaker and wireless earbuds, both invoking the AI-powered Google Assistant.

The Assistant, akin to Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa , is now available on more than 1 billion devices, including ones made by other manufacturers. With Google’s own products, though, the company can steer users to Assistant features even more.

That in turn, could encourage Google users to interact with other Google services such as search and maps more frequently, feeding into Google’s multi-billion dollar advertising business. More use of the Assistant also means that Google gets more data on user preferences and activities to build its advertising profiles.

Amazon and Google are both pushing their voice assistants onto more devices, though they have different ultimate goals, said Victoria Petrock, principle analyst at eMarketer. Amazon is getting a shopping assistant into every device it can, she said, while Google is collecting more information about user preferences.

“I think their end game is trying to collect all this data and target you with advertising,” she said.

The “helpful” features Assistant announces could make people even more likely to use it.

“The voice is a whole new way to capture people’s behaviors,” she said.

Assistant has faced scrutiny this year after reports revealed that Google contractors were transcribing some customer’s spoken communication with the AI to help improve the system. Google has since clarified its policies and said it will make it more explicit that people must give explicit permission, or opt in.

Still, many are skeptical of the proliferation of digital assistants in homes and pockets.

With the new Pixel, the Google Assistant will complete some tasks entirely on the device — so it doesn’t have to wait for answers from the cloud — allowing users to make commands and dictate text messages more quickly.

The Pixel 4 will have better facial recognition for unlocking the phone with a glance. Unlike the existing “trusted face” feature on Android phones, the new Face Unlock is intended to be more secure and easier to use, matching what Apple and Samsung already offer.

The new phone gets a second camera lens, for better zooming, even as some Apple and Samsung devices are getting a third lens, for wider-angle shots. True to Google’s focus on AI, the Pixel’s new camera will recognize people you have taken many photos of before and automatically focus on them in new shots.

And the new phone comes with motion-sensing technology that allows people to do simple hand-waving gestures to skip songs or switch apps without touching the phone.

The Pixel 4 will carry a starting price tag of $799 — $100 more than the entry-level iPhone 11 — and will go on sale Oct. 24. The larger XL version will cost $899.

Google’s phones have been well reviewed, but have yet to make much of a splash in the market dominated by Apple, Huawei and Samsung. In fact, Google’s hardware products have never been big moneymakers. Rather, they offer a way for Google to showcase its money-making services.

Google introduced a less expensive version of its phone, the Pixel 3a, to positive reviews in May, a trend that is sweeping across the smartphone market as consumers hold on to phones longer rather than buy new, expensive models. Google hinted the trend may continue, but offered no details.

“We see that being a really great long-term opportunity, both for our users and for us,” said Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of hardware at Google

The company also unveiled true wireless earbuds, called Pixel Buds, Google’s answer to Apple’s AirPods. The new model, which will go on sale early next year for $179, does away with the wire that connects the two buds.

Google introduced Nest Mini, the smaller version of its smart speaker. It comes out next Tuesday for $49. Google’s refreshed Wi-Fi router, Nest Wifi, will be available in the coming weeks for $269. A new Pixelbook Go laptop goes on sale in January staring at $649.

Google hardware team, including many former Google Glass engineers, work from a light-filled, architecturally impressive building near the company’s main campus in Mountain View, California. The building is complete with a “color lab” for finding the perfect device hues, a materials library for all sorts of elemental inspiration and a small model shop to build device prototypes on site.

“We started by defining what it feels like to hold Google in your hands,” hardware design executive Ivy Ross said. “The good thing about coming a little bit late to the hardware arena is you get to stand back and look at everyone else.”

One of the challenges this time around was finding a way to make the products more sustainable, a feat especially notable on the Nest Mini, which has a “fabric” casing made of yarn created from plastic water bottles.

Apple may soon launch its cheapest iPhone in years – with a price tag of just $399.

A top Apple expert believes the firm is secretly working on a handset called the iPhone SE 2, set for launch in early 2020.

The price of your iPhone has steadily been rising, with top models now costing close to $1,500.

CLICK ON THE SUN FOR MORE

But the trend can’t continue forever, and some budget-conscious Apple fans may not be able to afford the latest models.

Now Ming-Chi Kuo – an industry analyst who has successfully predicted loads of Apple announcements – believes a cheap model is on the way.

This device would be a successor to 2016’s popular iPhone SE ($359), Kuo claims.

He thinks it would cost $399, which would translate to £399-£429 in the U.K. based on Apple’s current pricing structures.

This handset is tipped to come in silver, space grey and red color options, as noted in a 9to5Mac report.

And it will look like the curvy iPhone 8, rather than the squared-off iPhone SE.

Importantly, Kuo says the mobile will feature the same powerful A13 chip featured in Apple’s new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.

But it might feature slightly less RAM and would probably miss out on the iPhone 11’s all-screen display.

He reckons Apple will flog as many as 30 million iPhone SE 2 phones throughout 2020, following a March launch.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard such rumors.

In July, industry whizz Dan Ives told us that a new iPhone SE was on the cards.

“Our team just finished an Asia tour, and we strongly believe Apple has a roadmap that will include four smartphones out in 2020 – with the lower-end being the next version of the [iPhone] SE,” the Wedbush Securities analyst told The Sun.

This story originally appeared in The Sun.

If you had a Yahoo account between 2012 and 2016, you may be entitled to compensation as the tech giant looks to settle a class-action lawsuit against it after it suffered several data breaches.

A website has been set up for those who wish to enter a claim and see if they are part of the settlement, where they can obtain their part of the $117.5 million settlement fund.

To check to see if you are eligible for the settlement, you must have had a qualifying Yahoo account between the specified dates. These accounts include those associated with Yahoo Fantasy Sports, Yahoo Finance, Tumblr and Flickr, as well as Yahoo email addresses. You can contact the administrator here.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR $100 SETTLEMENT IF YAHOO LEAKED YOUR DATA

If you are eligible for compensation, there are a number of potential benefits you can receive. You can get two years of credit monitoring services from AllClearID, which includes theft insurance.

Cash payments can also be received if someone already has credit monitoring. You can submit a claim for $100 instead of the credit monitoring service, though the website added “[p]ayment for such a claim may be less than $100.00 or more (up to $358.80) depending on how many Settlement Class Members participate in the Settlement.”

There is also an option to get up to $25,000 in reimbursement costs if you suffered expenses associated with the breach.

“As to documented lost time, you can receive payment for up to fifteen hours of time at an hourly rate of $25.00 per hour or unpaid time off work at your actual hourly rate, whichever is greater,” the website adds. “If your lost time is not documented, you can receive payment for up to five hours at that same rate.”

In order to file a claim, which must be done by July 20, 2020, you can do so online. If you are a basic account holder, you can do so here; paid users can click here; a small business user can click here; Israeli citizens can click here.

The company suffered at least three data breaches where a total of more than 3 billion accounts were improperly accessed and information such as telephone numbers, birth dates, passwords, security question answers, and names were obtained.

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Amazon Public Profile

Q: You mentioned that most of us have a social media presence on Amazon. I never signed up for that! How can I remove mine? This is a violation of my privacy!

A: We don’t often think of our “Amazon profile.” However, that’s precisely what it is. Your profile is created automatically, whether you want it or not, and it contains comments, ratings, public wish lists, biographical information, and other site interaction. This profile doesn’t include your purchases or your browsing history, but it’s very informative. I suggest you remove it. Tap or click here to learn how to get rid of your Amazon public profile for good.

Tracking Infidelity

Q: I am almost certain my spouse is cheating on me. How can I be sure? Can I see where he has gone by looking at his phone?

A: Before we get technical, talk with your spouse. Infidelity usually occurs when the marriage has issues, and these can often be worked out. That said, yes, technology offers telltale signs that someone is cheating. Some signs are behavioral; when someone is standoffish and glued to a phone, always receiving unidentified texts in the middle of the evening, these can seem pretty dubious. To find out, you may have to root through your spouse’s phone. Again, I don’t suggest doing this, but this kind of espionage might lead you to the truth. Tap or click here for digital signs that your significant other is cheating.

Free Microsoft Office

Q: You were talking on your show about how to get Microsoft Office for free. I wasn’t able to write it all down. What’s the secret way?

A: We’re so accustomed to writing and saving Word documents the traditional way, many people are unaware that Office has its own apps. You could theoretically write an entire book on your phone, create spreadsheets, or develop a PowerPoint presentation, and never pay a dime. There are significant limitations, of course; most people don’t want to type long documents on a phone or tablet, and you can’t easily save or export documents. There are other ways to use Microsoft Office, such as going to the Office website and using the online version. There’s also the old-fashioned way: become a student (or find a student) to get a significant discount. Tap or click here for all the ways to get Microsoft Office for free.

Best TV Options

Q: I would like to buy a new TV. Which ones do you recommend? I trust your advice.

A: Most of us haven’t rushed out to buy a large-screen TV because of its 4K capabilities unless there was some bargain. Now, 4K TVs are more affordable than ever, and some models are worth the investment. The mind-blowing pixilation works best with pro sports, blockbuster action movies, and ultra-scenic TV series like “Planet Earth,” but everyone can enjoy that vivid picture – and it’s hard to go back. So if you’re going to upgrade, 4K is a great way to go. Tap or click here for the best big screen and 4K TV deals

Secure Security Cameras

Q: I have smart security cameras in my house. How can I make sure hackers aren’t able to get into my network and see the cameras?

A: Once you start investing in a smart home, you open yourself up to potential hacks. Such intelligent gadgets are referred to as “the Internet of Things.” The most basic protection is to use a virtual private network (VPN), which is very difficult for hackers to crack. You should also change all default passwords and keep each of the device’s firmware updated. Switch off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when you don’t need them. As for your security cameras, these are a real hazard because they can capture intimate moments and alert criminals when you’re not at home. Tap or click here to watch a quick DIY video about locking down your cameras, router, and more.

What digital lifestyle questions do you have? Call Kim’s national radio show and tap or click here to find it on your local radio station. You can listen to or watch the Kim Komando Show on your phone, tablet, television or computer. Or tap or click here for Kim’s free podcasts.

Copyright 2019, WestStar Multimedia Entertainment. All rights reserved.

Learn about all the latest technology on The Kim Komando Show, the nation’s largest weekend radio talk show. Kim takes calls and dispenses advice on today’s digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacks. For her daily tips, free newsletters and more, visit her website at Komando.com.

Spill one cup of coffee, and you fry your laptop. Drop your tablet while taking a photo, and it can plunge to its doom. Lose your grip on a smartphone, and your $1,000 device could slip through a drainage grate and disappear forever.

Most of us can’t afford to regularly replace our devices, which is why we have to take good care of them. I have tons of practical tips on my site to help. Some popular ones are how to clean your camera, improve your Windows performance, and remove viruses from your iPad or iPhone.

Based on calls to my show, email, and questions posted on my site’s tech support forums, here are five mistakes that people routinely make.

1. Going the cheap route

In theory, you can buy a Lightning cable at your local corner store. But many fail to acknowledge that the specific charger and cable included in the box with any new device is designed especially for that product.

If you lose your charger or the USB cable gets frayed, do not buy the cheapest charger and cable you can find. The few dollars you save on a low-cost substitute will very likely negatively affect your device’s performance.

The dirty secret these one-size-fits-all charger and cable makers don’t want you to know is that often their products do not have the proper voltage needed to work with your specific device. Why does that matter? Your battery may end up not getting the juice it needs to charge fully. Worse, it may erode the battery’s life.

These cheap chargers can even be a threat to your life. Many generic phone chargers are less likely to meet established safety and quality testing guidelines than their name-brand counterparts and could lead to severe shocks and burns.

Sound extreme? Tap or click here to read about how a generic charger caused a fire in a woman’s bed, burning both her sheets and arms.

The lesson: Spend a little more on getting a replacement charger and cable from the devices’ manufacturers or certified third-party makers.

2. Being an over-charger

The newest batteries for smartphones, tablets, and laptops are a vast improvement over past years, and most of them are made of high-quality lithium-ion or lithium-polymer. While it may seem counter-intuitive, over-charging your battery can damage it.

The rule of thumb is to keep your phone, tablet, and laptop charged somewhere between 40% and 80%. Batteries containing a higher charge are more stressed. Tap or click here for more battery tips for your gadgets.

As for your laptop, those batteries have a finite number of charge-discharge cycles. If you frequently let your battery completely run out of juice, it affects the charge-discharge cycle and diminishes its intended lifespan. That’s why you should try to keep your battery charged to at least 40% levels.

RELATED: 5 signs it’s time for a new laptop

3. Charging all the time

Do you plug your device into the wall socket and forget about it? Fortunately, when the new generation of batteries reaches maximum charge, they have mechanisms to prevent excess charging. That holds true for tablets, smartphones, and laptops.

While it’s not considered harmful to keep your smartphone or tablet plugged in all night, do try to turn them off when you can to give them a rest. A huge side benefit is that a device’s performance gets a huge boost from a power off, power on cycle.

Don’t keep your laptop plugged in all the time. Batteries can overheat and even cause fires, a remote but real possible danger.

4. Not paying attention

The latest phones are fairly rugged: tough, water-resistant, and less likely to shatter when dropped. But leaving your device in a hot car or out in the sun can cause serious damage. Not only can it cause the battery to leak or overheat, but it can also cause data to be lost or corrupted.

Like those knockoff chargers, a low-quality battery can also be dangerous. In Oklahoma City, a woman left a lithium-ion battery meant for her iPhone inside her hot car. The battery didn’t just overheat; it exploded and set the woman’s car on fire. The battery was purchased from an unauthorized third-party dealer.

Extreme cold temperatures also wreak havoc on your phone. Lithium-ion batteries can stop discharging electricity in extremely cold temperatures, leading to shortened battery life, display problems, and even cracking the display glass.

RELATED: How to fix the 7 most irritating Windows 10 features

5. Being a Pig Pen

Whether you’re cleaning your laptop, iPad, smartphone, or favorite mouse, here are a few useful cleaning items to have on hand. They’re flexible for tidying up just about anything.

• Compressed air – This is especially useful when spraying into extremely tight quarters and crevices that are difficult to reach.
• Isopropyl alcohol – Do not use household cleaning products like Windex, glass cleaner, or countertop cleanser on your electronic devices. A good rule of thumb is if you would use it to clean your kitchen, it’s not appropriate for your computer or electronics.
• Distilled or purified bottled water – Don’t rely on tap water, which could potentially leave mineral spots and stains.
• Soft cloths – Try to aim for lint-free if you can, and don’t simply opt for paper towels. If you have a 100% cotton cloth, this is also appropriate, but not things like tissues.
• Toothbrush – A soft toothbrush can be used on harder-to-reach areas and with spots that need light scrubbing.

Tap or click here for the exact steps to clean vents, ports, keyboards, touchpads, and mouse.

What digital lifestyle questions do you have? Call Kim’s national radio show and tap or click here to find it on your local radio station. You can listen to or watch the Kim Komando Show on your phone, tablet, television or computer. Or tap or click here for Kim’s free podcasts.

Copyright 2019, WestStar Multimedia Entertainment. All rights reserved.

Learn about all the latest technology on The Kim Komando Show, the nation’s largest weekend radio talk show. Kim takes calls and dispenses advice on today’s digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacks. For her daily tips, free newsletters and more, visit her website at Komando.com.

Amazon spokesman Jay Carney backtracked on Thursday after being called out for questioning the patriotism of the Trump administration.

“Virtually with no exception, everyone I dealt with in those administrations, whether I personally agreed or disagreed with what they thought were the right policy decisions or the right way to approach things, I never doubted that they were patriots. I never doubted that they believed they were doing things that were in the best interest of the country,” Carney, who served as Barack Obama’s press secretary, reportedly said on stage during the GeekWire Summit in Seattle. “I don’t feel that way now.”

He went on to slam the current administration’s lack of honesty.

“I never lied,” he said, referring to his time at the White House, according to Business Insider. “When you can’t answer something or you don’t have a good answer to give, you say, ‘I’ll take that question’ or ‘I don’t have an answer for you.’ You don’t lie. And there doesn’t seem to be that standard today.”

‘BLACK US VOTERS’ MAIN TARGET OF RUSSIA’S DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN IN 2016, NEW REPORT CONCLUDES

President Trump’s son Donald Jr. blasted Carney on Twitter and tagged Amazon in his response, writing: “Hey @amazon- So is it your companies [sic] official corporate position that the the thousands of Americans who work in the Trump Administration aren’t ‘patriots’ because that’s what your top spokesman (and former Obama hack) @JayCarney just said???”

Not long after, Carney tweeted what seemed to be a response to the president’s son.

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Trump has frequently criticized Amazon along with its CEO, Jeff Bezos, even referring to the publication that Bezos owns, The Washington Post, as “The Amazon Washington Post” — usually following critical coverage of his administration.