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Category: Tech

Does Using A Microfiber Cloth Destroy Your Macbook?

There’s a secret between your keyboard and your Macbook screen – finger grease. That’s not surprising but the secret is if you don’t keep those two things separate, eventually the oils from your hands will wear away your laptop’s protective screen coating. As the protective coating of your screen breaks down from skin oils, it becomes less reflective, distorted, and significantly reduces resale and Apple Trade In value.

The Solution

As you can see in the video here, the solution is to place a thin microfiber cloth on your keyboard before your close the lid, every single time. This helps keep a natural (and soft) separation between the keys and screen making sure your finger grease doesn’t contaminate the screen. The key is to pick a sufficiently thin but strong microfiber cloth. Below is one I can recommend.

Regular Cleaning

You also want to regularly clean your Macbook or laptop keyboard, ideally once a week. Apple Stores use this iKlear cleaner so a spray plus a wipe down using another microfiber (not the one you use for screen-keyboard separation) is recommended to prevent the accumulation of grease, oil, and dirt that can damage a screen.

As laptops get thinner, the amount of space between the screen and keyboard has shrunk. Even more pressure is applied when you stuff your laptop into a backpack so the strategic use of a microfiber cloth can increase the longevity of your Macbook or any other laptop.

How To Protect Yourself In London From Phone Snatching

You may have seen recent videos like this one from London, England where brazen thieves on e-bikes snatch people’s smartphones out of their hands in broad daylight. It’s a quick crime that’s been reported over 73,000 times in a recent 12 month span. Despite the headlines though it’s an classic crime and the tactics to avoid it are nothing new.

What’s Phone Snatching?

Phone snatching is a type of theft that’s just what it sounds like: someone grabbing your phone out of your hands and making off with it. In London the increasingly common tactic is several thieves working together on e-bikes in busy areas who quickly and quietly come up on someone texting, talking or just holding their phone. It’s a quick grab and by the time you notice they’re speeding away down the street.

london phone snatching

Phone snatching also occurs on metro platforms where thieves can grab your phone just as the doors close. Again, the tactics is snatching, whether it’s a phone, purse, or backpack so here’s how to protect yourself.

Avoid Being A Phone Snatching Victim

There’s often a spotter looking out for people texting, talking, or simply walking with their phone held in hand. The crooks are looking for distracted people so the first line of defense is when you’re not using your phone, keep it in your (front) pocket or purse. When you need to text or make a call “pull over” away from the center of the sidewalk so there’s some physical barrier like a way on your back. This cuts off the angles someone can attack you from or just have a look around and get to a less crowded spot.

Same thing goes for when you’re taking photos. When you are looking at your phone it’s most vulnerable so try to be mindful of what’s going on around you. Also, knowing where phone snatching rates are highest in London can help you increase your own awareness.

What To Do If Your Phone Is Snatched

Now if your phone does get snatched make sure to report it as soon as possible. Then, as quickly as you can, log into Find My Device on Android or iCloud for iPhone to mark your device as lost. You’ll also want to update your phone service carrier as well. If your phone was unlocked when it was snatched then be sure to change all of your passwords as soon as possible. That includes email, iCloud, social media, and cancel all of your credit cards and report them stolen if they were on your phone through Google or Apple Pay. I would also let your friends and family know in the meantime that your phone was stolen and to ignore any suspicious calls or texts from you until you’ve had a chance to reset all of your passwords and get a new phone.

Prevention is key to avoid being in this situation so no matter where you are in the world, be mindful when you take out your smartphone, know the local areas more prone to snatching theft, and create a backpack security system.

Beware Of Traveling To Certain Countries With A Garmin InReach

The Garmin Inreach is a small device that uses satellites for communication and very common gear for hikers, bikers, and other people who travel far from the reach of cell towers. GPS communicators are small, less expensive, and more common than they’ve been in recent years. All of those factors mean many are traveling with them without being aware devices like the InReach are banned in many countries, including India.

You can watch the video above to see what happened to one traveler who was detained at an airport in India.

What’s An InReach?

Devices like the InReach are useful for maintaining communications where you might not have any reliable cell phone coverage, like when climbing mountains, hiking in the woods, or are diving for example. Having reliable communications is important for safety when you just can’t rely on a cell phone to make a call or send a message.

But bringing a satellite communicator with you internationally to certain countries is where a lot of travelers get into trouble.

Where Satellite Communicators Are Banned

On the purchase page for the InReach buried in the fine print, Garmin note that InReach uses the Iridium satellite network but that some countries require government permission or require a government issued code to activate satellite communication. Other countries completely restrict the use of satellite communicators, like India, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Georgia. Additionally, the United States embargoes satellite communicators from countries like Afghanistan, Cuba, and Russia.

Verify Your GPS Device

Those of you planning to travel with any kind of satellite communicator should check with the embassy of the countries you’ll be visiting to see if there are any restrictions. I would recommend you add some details like what specific device it is and why you’re bringing it, for example “I’m going to be hiking this popular trail or climbing this mountain,” and wait for a response.

new delhi airport

If your communicator is restricted, don’t bring it. If registration is required, make sure you get all of the proper permits and paperwork before you travel. And if they say it’s allowed, I snap a screenshot of the reply on your phone just so you have it in case there’s any question or trouble you come across.

Don’t make assumptions about the countries that allow or don’t allow satellite communicators. And in some places, like Mexico and Romania, services like SMS messaging are restricted. So make sure that you know any limitations and compensate for them so you can keep your outdoor activities safe. In countries where satellite communicators are restricted or banned, you may be able to rent one from a local authorized dealer. Some local bike shops, car rental locations, tourism offices, and hiking stores may be able to help.

iPhone and Samsung users also have the option to use the built in satellite communications in emergency situations. It doesn’t work as well as a dedicated satellite communicator and not available in every country but if it’s your only option, it’s better than nothing. In India having a Garmin InReach with you could lead to an arrest, detention at the airport, and in general a bad time. I can see though how people can make the mistake, these are small, useful, commercially availalbe and popular devices. But now you know to be careful when traveling with one so you don’t end up ruining your next trip.

Does Garmin’s Jet Lag Advisor Really Work?

Garmin smartwatches can tell you a lot about your body with real-time updates of heart rate, stress, calories, respiration and more. The higher up you go in their line the more data you get and recently Garmin has introduced a Jet Lag Advisor that takes that information to help with every travelers headache.

I tried Garmin’s jet lag advisor for several months and over 50 time zones to find out if it really works. You can watch the video above and read the recap below.

What Jet Lag Advisor Does

For Garmin watches that do support jet lag advisor (Forerunners 265, 965, Fenix series, and others) when you have a trip coming up go into the Garmin Connect app on your phone – it’s the only way to enter your trip data – go into training and planning, and then Jet Lag Advisor. Once there you can enter in any number of flights you have coming up. Note that if you’re taking a long flight but don’t cross any time zones, Jet Lag Advisor won’t be used and will let you know (although you can still enable it anyway).

garmin forerunner 265s

For flights that do cross time zones though, you enter in your departure and destination cities – Jet Lag Advisor tells you to ignore any layovers.

Before Your Flight

One the details are in Garmin Connect it will sync with your watch in the upcoming trip in the Jet Lag Advisor glance. A few days out Jet Lag Advisor will begin alerting you with recommendations on moving your body clock closer to your destination time. These notifications can be toggled on or off as you like with recommendations on when to avoid or seek light, take a nap, use caffeine, get some exercise or take melatonin as some examples.

When you’re actually traveling you’ll still get prompts but even more. A neat feature is the timeline both on your watch and in the Garmin Connect App that shows good times to eat or take a nap and at the beginning of each windows you’ll get a notification on your watch. It’s fun having the recommendations but when you’re traveling they often are just that – recommendations you can’t practically use at certain times when you’re actually in transit. Avoiding light when you’re waiting for your next flight on a layover wouldn’t be feasible for example. During these times I would put the Jet Lag Advisor as something fun rather than an actual coach you can use to adjust your body clock. But where it can actually help that I noticed, it when you finally arrive.

Kicking Jet Lag Upon Arrival

Once you’re at your destination Jet Lag Advisor reminds you of when you should sleep or not. It’s that common traveler dilemma when you get somewhere new and are tired but don’t know when you should sleep without completely throwing off your body clock. Jet Lag Advisor gives good guidance on getting your clock adjusted and coaches you during the first few days.

I use the Jet Lag Advisor most closely after I’ve arrived somewhere and will avoid napping or force myself to get outside or keep the lights on based on the watches recommendations. I’ve found Jet Lag Advisor does help reduce the amount of time you feel jet lagged. You’ll still feel jet lag of course but having a coach that keeps you on the schedule can help and if that doesn’t work, peanuts might be another jet lag cure.

QuietComfort Earbuds Review Might Be The Best Bose In The Lineup

The new Bose QuietComfort earbuds are half the price of their flagship Ultra line and a compelling buy because they’re as good or better in many ways. Recently launched, for some reason Bose have named their latest mid-tier earbuds QuietComfort (again) which seem to be taking a new place in their line up as the best buy for most people.

You can watch the video for the full review after reading this recap.

Introducing The QuietComfort Once More

The QuietComfort come in three colors; black, white smoke, and chilled lilac as Bose are calling them. They’re definitely clunkier than the Bose Ultra and stick out from your ears so while they don’t look that great Bose have packed in about 8 and a half hours of battery life compared to the 4 and a half of the Bose Ultra. The case is a bit thick but completely pocket-able adds 18 hours of additional battery life and charges full in about 2 hours.

Emphasis On Comfort

Even though they are bulky the earbuds are light and very, very comfortable. They’re probably the most comfortable earbuds I’ve ever worn. The ear tips are soft and the weight of the buds nicely distributed so you hardly notice them at all. The standard ear tips work well for me but Bose have also included a few other sizes to help you get the best fit.

bose quietcomfort

Something else unexpected Bose have done with these earbuds is they don’t use the same Bose Music app as the Ultra. Rather it’s the Bose QCE app that gives you more options, information, and customization options for the QuietComfort than the Bose Music app. The QuietComfort have responsive touch pads which can be configured independently, voice controls, and multipoint support (still missing from the quickly forgotten QuietComfort II).

Is There A Price Catch?

Better battery life, more features via the Bose QCE app, and active noise cancellation nearly as good as the QuietComfort Ultra at a third of the price. You’re probably asking what the catch is and honestly there aren’t many good answers. The physical design is a bit clunkier, active noise cancellation just a notch less than the Ultra (but hardly significant) so unless those two things are extremely important to you, I would save your money. At $100 cheaper the Bose QuietComfort are the earbuds that make the most sense for most people in the Bose lineup. Beyond that, for $189, they might be the best deal in premium earbuds right now including the Sony options.

Should You Buy A Garmin Forerunner Right NOW?

There are some better times of the year to buy a Garmin Forerunner that can save you money as well as let you know the best times to get other Garmin watches.

The Lineup

The Forerunner are Garmin’s running line of watches I’ve reviewed in the past, like the 165, 265, and 965. These are the current line at various price points and the other major differences being a few advanced tracking features, battery life, and size options.

When To Buy

Historically Garmin doesn’t have great Black Friday deals on Forerunners – typically around 10%. Now that’s not an insignificant discount, especially on the more expensive 965 (about $50 off the $600 price tag). At other times throughout the year though Garmin tends to run sales on Forerunners with better deals about double the discount of typical Black Friday sales.

Those better deals tend to happen at some key points of the year, February, June, and September to align with marathon and running seasons. That means at the end of the year when many other electronics are released and put on sale, Garmin tends to hold off on the Forerunner line.

New Versions On The Way

The Forerunners tend to have a release cycle around March. Both the 265 and 965 were released in March or 2023 so an update to those versions is expected between March and June of 2025. So, which watch should you buy when? Let’s start with the 165.

garmin forerunner 965

If you have been eyeing the 165 you should wait for Black Friday and see if it goes on sale but other than that, go ahead and buy it. It’s the entry level Forerunner that in my original review I found had pretty much every useful feature for fitness tracking and it’s a great watch. It’s also not expecting to be updated any time soon and chances are if you’re looking at the 165, you don’t already have a recent Forerunner and it will be an upgrade.

For those of you looking at the 265 or 965, right now, here’s my advice.

If you already have a smart or fitness watch you’re happy with that’s tracking your runs, workouts, swims, whatever, then I would hold off until the next version of the Forerunner. It’s likely to be released in March and it’s almost certain there will be key upgrades. The latest Elevate 5 heart rate sensor found in the Venu 3 series, ECG support and hopefully even better battery life. The glass screen might be enhanced to Sapphire for more scratch resistance and almost certainly we’ll get a few new metrics and menu views.

If you don’t have a Forerunner or fitness watch and you want one, the 265 and 965 are great. Even if you buy one now and then the next version comes out in 5 months, there’s probably going to be nothing in those that you’re really going to be missing.

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About Anil Polat

foxnomad aboutHi, I'm Anil. foXnoMad is where I combine travel and tech to help you travel smarter. I'm on a journey to every country in the world and you're invited to join the adventure! Read More

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